The Year that Was
by GroovyKat
Summary: The TARDIS has taken The Doctor, Martha, Rose and Gal to the very edge of the universe. When mischief and mayhem ensue as the Doctor weaves his way into events, the TARDIS is stolen with a pregnant Rose Tyler on board. What happened in the months between the landings of the TARDIS and then the Doctor in the 21st Century? A Direct Follow-on fic from "Just a Human"
1. A Dead Man

A/N: I have decided to completely scrap my other fic "When Fiction Becomes Reality". It's deleted. It's gone. Buh-bye and all that. Why? Because it completely sucked, that's why. I might revisit the idea one day, but for now... I'm going with this one instead.

This will be just as timey-wimey as Just a Human was and is a direct follow-on from that fic. It's not wholly essential to have read that one before heading into this one. This might refer back to it here and there, but it will essentially stand on it's own.

Initially, there will be stolen lines from the episodes in question, but that will only be for one or two chapters. I don't intend on writing the episode as it aired ... I'm knicking the idea, but I'll make it my own.

 _~~oooOOOooo~~_

 _Previously in the "Family Adventures" Series:_

 _The Doctor was able to pull himself up enough to look at the monitor. He frowned at what he saw. "We're accelerating into the future. Faster than she's ever gone before."_

 _Gallifrey clutched hard at the Doctor's trouser leg and tugged himself up enough to see the readout on the monitor. "The year one billion," he grit out. "Five Billion. Five Trillion. Fifty trillion."_

 _The Doctor shook his head. "What? The year one hundred trillion? That's impossible!"_

 _"_ _Why," Martha huffed out. "What's so impossible about that?"_

 _"_ _It's the end of the universe," the Doctor answered her. "We're going to the end of the universe!"_

 _"_ _That's bad?"_

 _"_ _I don't know," the Doctor admitted. "Just hold on. I don't know how rough this landing's going to be." He reached out to hang on to Gallifrey. "I got you, Gal. Hang on, okay?"_

 _With a deafening roar and whoosh of releasing energies, the TARDIS found her landing place and thudded heavily to the ground. Silence then filled the room, with the exception of the heaving breaths of the three console room occupants._

 _Martha spoke up first. "We've landed, yeah?"_

 _The Doctor rapidly nodded his head. "Yeah." He looked down at Gallifrey pressed against his chest inside the protective circle of his arms. "You okay, Flubble?"_

 _Gallifrey nodded slowly and locked his widened eyes on the doors of the TARDIS. "What do you think is out there?"_

 _The Doctor looked toward the door himself. "I don't know."_

 _Martha had to chuckle. "The rarest words ever spoken by the Time Lord Doctor, and you've said it twice in thirty seconds."_

 _"_ _Not even the Time Lords came this far, Martha," he answered carefully. "So we should probably leave. We should really, really … go."_

 _Gallifrey carefully peeled himself from his father's arms and cautiously headed to the door. "You think we should really just reset the cords and get out of here, right, Dad?"_

 _"_ _Oh, abslolutely, Gal. Quite possibly too dangerous for any of us to head out there. I mean…" he slipped his hands into his trouser pockets and strode to the doorway. "I mean, there could be anything beyond those doors, couldn't there?"_

 _"_ _Best to just leave, yeah?"_

 _Martha let out a groan and pulled on the TARDIS doors. "Well the two of you can stand there all day like a couple of scared little mice. I'm heading out." She stepped through the doorway, and then paused with a look of challenge to the two Time Lords. "Well? Coming?"_

 _The Doctor and Gallifrey gave each other a wary look, but it was wariness that was quickly replace with grins of thrill. It was the Doctor's smile that broke the widest as he winked at his son._

 _"_ _Race you!"_

~~oooOOOooo~~

Gallifrey Tyler and his father exploded through the doorway of the TARDIS wearing identical grins and belching out gleeful hollers that differed only in the inflictions that age put upon their tones. They skidded sideways in the dirt as their matching Converse shoes failed to find immediate purchase in the loose soil. The Doctor remained upright in his skid, whereas his young son stumbled into an awkward series of uncoordinated steps that ended with Gallifrey extending both arms outward and leaning forward against his fall.

"I'm good," he called out automatically, even though his father's laugh dispelled any suggestion that he was in any way concerned. "All good. Steady as a rock."

The Doctor shook his head with a laugh as he let his hand come down onto Gallifrey's shoulder. "Steady as a rock, indeed, Flubble. If we're talking about the shuddering rocks that frequently roll down the southern mountains of Raudoon, that is."

Gallifrey narrowed his eyes at the Doctor and stepped away from him. He pointed a finger of accusation at him and shook his head. "Are you trying to be funny? _You_?"

The Doctor maintained a beaming and toothy grin as he slid his hands into his trouser pockets and rocked back onto the heels of his Converse. "I've been known to tell a joke or two here and there…"

"Or _be_ one," Martha quipped with a wink as she knocked her shoulder against his in passing. "A _joke_ that is."

The Doctor feigned hurt and let out a breathy whimper. "Why Martha Jones. You wound me."

"Then my job here is done." She chuckled and lifted her head to look around at the tall, white stone walls surrounding them. "Where have we landed then? Looks like a quarry."

"Right," he answered with a breathy voice through a wide open mouth as he took in the walls towering around them. "A quarry, indeed. I wonder why the TARDIS landed us here, then? What's significant about _here_ that made it the best materialization point?" His head dropped at a moan from his child. "You okay, Gal?"

Gallifrey wore a tight grimace and held both arms across his belly. He shook his head and looked toward his father through squinted eyes. "I don't feel so good."

The Doctor frowned with concern and moved quickly toward his son. He put his hands on the boy's shoulders and dipped at the knees to lower himself to look into Gallifrey's face. "What's wrong? Feel sick?"

Gallifrey nodded. Then he shook his head. "Yeah, and then No. I mean, I have some nausea, but my head also feels funny. Like a belly ache in my brain." His eyes broke from their squint and widened. "No. Like a _swoop_ in my head. Like a whole flock of Fledershrews were flapping about in there."

"Colony," the Doctor corrected quietly as he lifted in his stoop to press his lips against Gallifrey's head to check his temperature.

"A _what_?"

"Colony," the Doctor repeated as he cupped Gallifrey's face to analyze his pallor. "The collective noun for Fledershrews is _colony._ "

Gallifrey's face lengthened. His voice fell monotone. "I'm tellin' you I'm feeling sick, and you want to correct my grammar?"

"There is never an excuse for poor grammar," he replied almost distractedly. The Doctor frowned at being able to find anything particularly unusual in his son's condition to find the source of his illness. "What did you eat before we left 1969?"

"Same thing as you," he answered with a moan. He dipped his head and partway stuck out his lower lip. "You feel okay, Dad?"

The Doctor frowned and looked into his own self to determine whether or not he was feeling in any way poorly. With a sniff, he noted that he, too, was feeling slightly out of sorts. "Come to think of it," he muttered. "I'm not feeling so good myself."

Martha let out a sudden shriek and an exclamation of surprise that had the Doctor instinctively reach forward to snatch his son against his side. He readied to step ahead of Gallifrey to put a shield between him and whatever threat Martha had found. "Martha, what is it?"

"Oh my God," she yelped out as she dropped to her knees in the dirt beside a man lying prone in the dirt.

"Ahh," the Doctor breathed with realization as he watched Martha search for a pulse. He'd forgotten about why they'd fled Cardiff so violently. "Yes. That's right."

"Doctor," Martha called frantically. "I can't find a pulse." She inhaled a sharp hitch in her breath and stood up quickly. "You've got that medical kit thing. In the TARDIS."

He kept his eyes on the man on the ground. His voice was quiet, and his hold on Gallifrey protective. "Hello again, Captain."

"Do you know him?" Gallifrey asked as he curled around his father's leg to take a look for himself.

"Yeah," he huffed through an open mouth. "And I think I know why you're not feeling well, Flubble."

Gallifrey pressed a curious finger to his bottom lip as he took a couple of careful strides forward. When he didn't feel his father shift to hold him back, he took more confident strides toward him.

"Here we go," Martha hollered as she rushed past the Doctor. "Get out of the way."

Gallifrey skipped backward a step when Martha fell to her knees beside the unconscious man and began to dig through the medical kit she'd pulled from the TARDIS. He peered over her shoulder and looked the man over. "Clothes are a bit odd, don't ya think?"

Martha nodded as she continued to search the bag's contents. "Not very hundred trillion, is it? Coat's gotto be World War 2."

The Doctor's voice ghosted in from behind them. "I think he came with us."

Gallifrey gasped and looked to his father with horror written across his face. "What? You mean from _Earth_?" At the Doctor's nod, he shook his head with disbelief. "But that would mean that he was hanging onto the TARDIS. Through the vortex, even!"

"That's very _him_ ," he answered flatly.

"You know him, Dad?"

The Doctor nodded. "Friend of mine," he murmured with obvious discomfort in his voice. "Well. He _was_ a friend. Back in the old days. Used to travel with me and your mum."

Gallifrey's eyes shot wide and he kept his eyes on his father as he pointed down at the man with both hands. "Is that Uncle Jack?"

"Yeah," the Doctor answered quietly. "That's him."

"But mum said. I mean she thinks. She told me that Uncle Jack died," he huffed with obvious shock. "But here he is. Alive…"

"No, Gal. I'm sorry," Martha interrupted him gently. She pulled the earpieces of her stethoscope from her ears and shook her head. He gently took his hand in hers. "There's no heartbeat. Nothing. He's dead."

No sooner had the diagnosis left her lips, and Jack Harkness gasped in an urgent and hurried breath of air. His hands flailed upward to grab Martha, who screamed loudly enough to have Gallifrey stumble backward onto his little butt.

"What the..?!"

Martha recovered quickly and stroked at Jack's shoulders. "Well. So much for Doctor Jones." She smiled and lowered her voice into a gentle tone. "It's alright. Just breathe deep. I've got you."

Jack panted a few deep breaths, and then looked up into Martha's face. The panic in his eyes softened and a smile graced his lips. "Captain Jack Harkness. And who are _you_?"

Martha was immediately captured by his wolfish smile, and couldn't help but return it in kind. "Martha Jones."

The wolfish grin turned slightly seductive as Jack Harkness levered his somewhat irresistible bedroom gaze at her. "Nice to meet you, Martha Jones."

The Doctor groaned out behind them. "Oh, don't start."

Jack peered around Martha's shoulder and watched the Doctor assist a young boy in getting up off the ground. His brow flicked in question, but he didn't voice it. "I was only saying hello," he managed instead.

"Of course you were."

"Oh," Martha sang with a blush as she helped him to stand up. "I don't mind."

Jack steadied himself a moment before he drew himself to his full height to stand in front of the Doctor. He noted the way the young boy seemed to hide just slightly behind the Doctor, and the way the Doctor instinctively seemed to stand as protector, but he chose not to comment.

"Doctor," he managed finally by way of greeting.

"Captain," the Doctor answered back with equal coolness.

"Good to see you."

"And you too." He looked him up and down. "Same as ever, I see. Although." He drew a circle around his face with a finger. "Have you had work done?"

Jack spluttered out a short laugh. " _You_ can talk."

The Doctor's eyes widened with question, but quickly settled back to neutral. "Oh yes," he said with a forced smile. "Regeneration. I'm surprised you knew who I was."

Jack gestured toward the TARDIS. "The Blue Police Box kind've gives it away."

The Doctor merely hummed in response.

Martha looked between the two men and shuddered slightly. She looked to Gallifrey with an arched brow. "Are you feeling the chill in the air, Gal?" She wrapped her arms around herself. "Frosty."

Gallifrey bit his lips closed together and nodded his head to her question. His eyes were bright and wide as he sized up the man he'd only ever heard stories about. He could sense his father's discomfort toward Jack and curled himself further behind the Doctor's legs.

Jack let his eyes fall to the child and dropped into a crouch. He held out his hand in greeting. "Jack Harkness," he offered with a gentle smile. "And you are?"

"G-Gallifrey," he stammered. He reached out his little hand to take Jack's, but quickly snatched it back to clutch at his belly. He let out a moan. "Dad. I really don't feel so good."

Jack's eyes shot up high to meet the Doctor's gaze. There was no way to hide the surprise in his voice. " _Dad_?"

The Doctor dropped his hand onto Gallifrey's shoulder took them a protective step backward. "You'll be okay, Flubble. Maybe you should head back into the TARDIS. I'll come find you in a moment."

He bit at his lips again and hummed out a two-syllable sound to say he wasn't moving anywhere.

Jack was slightly flabbergasted, and looked between man and boy with wide eyes. "You're a father? When did that happen?" He then looked to Martha and shifted his hand in the air between her and the Doctor. "Are you…?"

"Oh," she coughed out in reply. She raised both hands and shook her head. "No. Oh. No, not me. Definitely not me. I'm _not_ that child's mother."

Gallifrey found his voice at that moment. "I'm not quite sure if I should be offended by how vehemently you're protesting that, Martha."

"I love you, Gal," she assured him with a smile. "I do. Don't get me wrong."

"But you'd prefer to play Auntie, yeah?"

"Something like that." She scruffed at his head and smiled as he sighed out a dopey little sound that may or may not have been similar to a purr. "It's way more fun to be able to corrupt you then send you back home to your parents."

The Doctor slapped at her hand gently away from his son's head. "Will you please stop doing that to him, Martha," he said with a groan. "He's not a _pet._ " He rolled his eyes at her light laughter in response. "And there'll be no corrupting of young Time Lords, ta. Not on _my_ TARDIS."

"I see that attitude hasn't changed," Jack cut in with amusement. "How often does he give you the whole _My TARDIS, my rules_ speech, Martha?"

"I don't have to make that speech to Martha," the Doctor clipped back indignantly. "She's a good girl who doesn't run off and need constant reminders. Unlike you. Really. I've never had a companion who…"

"Rose Tyler," Jack shot in quickly. "Miss Jeopardy friendly herself."

Martha threw her head back and laughed, which broadened Jack's smile.

"Oh, he's told you about her then?" He took a step closer to Martha and lowered his head to speak in a conspiratorial manner, but loud enough for the Doctor to actually hear. "That girl and the trouble she could find herself in. I met her because she'd disobeyed rule number one of life in the TARDIS…"

"Oh, yes. _Don't wander off_ ," she recited with a smile.

"Oh, Rose _wandered_ ," Jack said with a laugh. "Wandered off in the middle of the blitz, and somehow managed to find herself hanging from a barrage balloon in the middle of an air-raid wearing a Union Jack across her delightfully pert chest."

"Jack," the Doctor warned darkly. "There is a _child_ present, do you mind?"

Jack quickly spun to face the Doctor. His expression fell to sadness and sympathy. "Before anything else. I just gotto ask, Doc. Canary Wharf. Rose. I-I saw her name on the list of the dead." He swallowed. "Rose Tyler."

"That's my mum," Gallifrey offered up quickly. He frowned and shook his head. "She's not dead." He thumbed toward the time ship. "She's in the TARDIS."

Jack's eyes widened with thrill as he looked toward the silent Police Box. "Alive," he questioned quietly.

"So very alive," the Doctor said with clear thrill in his voice. "Safe and sound and here – with me – where she should be."

"Oh, yes!" Jack cheered. He threw his arms around the Doctor and laughed a boisterous sound of utter relief. "Oh thank God!"

The Doctor giggled a happy sound of his own. It was a sound that bubbled deep in the back of his throat and emerged as a pleasant little chuckle.

As quickly as he'd drawn in the Doctor for a hug, Jack released him. He slapped his hands on his thighs and then clapped his hands together. "Then why are we waiting around here? Let's go inside. I've got several years of bone-crushing hugs to give that girl."

The Doctor's jubilance fell to unshielded jealousy, and he shook his head slowly. "No. Can't do that right now." He scratched at his sideburn and pulled his lip up into a light curl as he shifted his eyes away from Jack. "She's having a nap. Been a long few months for her. Got stuck for a while in 1969, lost the TARDIS, had to work to get ourselves back to our linear time to retrieve the old girl." He stopped scratching at his sideburn and looked back to Jack. "I'm sure you understand. I'll let her know that we saw you, though. She'll be disappointed to have missed you."

Jack tipped his head to one side. He eyed the Doctor critically. "Still the jealous type, I see."

He snorted an indignant exhale. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Gallifrey grinned from beside his father. "Jealous: Fiercely protective or vigilant of one's rights and possessions." His eyes flashed. "Not that Mum qualifies as a _possession_ , of course. No. You'd get into a row if you called her that to her face, but your behavior toward other men who look her way does come under the umbrella of _jealousy_." He slouched to one side and rubbed at his jaw as he considered things. "And if you try and deny it, Dad, I'm sure that I can have a talk with Auntie TARDIS and we can replay some of your _play of the week_ oncoming storm glares and leers…"

"Gallifrey," The Doctor warned with his own slouch as he rubbed his eyes with his fingertips. "If you wouldn't mind…"

"Oh no," Jack cut in with a grin. "Don't stifle the lad, Doc. Let him step up and right a wrong – God knows you don't stop yourself in doing it."

"Don't encourage him, Jack."

Jack dropped his arm across Gallifrey's shoulder. "You should _always_ encourage the youngsters, Doc. That's how they become brilliant."

"You say that now," the Doctor challenged with a rise of his hand to point a finger toward Jack's face. "Because he's on your side. He doesn't discriminate, my boy. He'll correct you just as quickly, and then we'll see if you have the same opinion of encouragement." He belatedly noticed the increasing look of ill-discomfort in Gallifrey's face and pulled the young boy out of Jack's hold. "You might want to keep a few steps back from my lad for the next little while."

Jack raised a brow that was as accusatory as it was confused.

"He's got some time sickness," the Doctor explained quickly. "Queasy in the belly, flock of trunkikes in his head."

"Uh-huh," he replied flatly.

"But hey," the Doctor offered with a light nudge at Gallifrey's back to guide him closer. "If you want Time-Tot vomit all over your classic coat, then by all means make friends with my boy."

Gallifrey shook his head and stepped backward into his father's legs. He then turned and wrapped his skinny little arms around the Doctor's waist and nuzzled his nose into his belly. The Doctor rubbed at his hair and leaned forward to embrace his child as best he could.

"Head on in to the TARDIS, Flubble." He peppered out a couple of sounds in the negative to his son shaking his head in refusal to take his advice. "No arguments, Gal. You're not going to feel any better being out here with us. Go inside and look after your mum for me." He smiled. "Make sure that your little sister is safe, yeah? Be a good big brother."

Gallifrey's head shot up and he broke out into a beaming grin of absolute thrill. "I _knew it_!" he cheered. "I _knew_ that mum was pregnant. You tried to play around the topic and pretend that no, but ha! I'm so much cleverer than you think I am." He looked to Martha and bounced on his toes. "Did you hear that, Martha? I'm finally getting my sister!"

"That's great, Gal," she answered back gently. She lifted her eyes to the Doctor and offered a warm smile. "Congratulations, Doctor. You and Rose. Well. You deserve this, you know." She touched at his arm and stroked it affectionately. "You both deserve to be happy."

He grinned at her. "And we are." He petted Gallifrey's head. "We really are." He clapped his hands and looked down to his son. "Right. So that said. Gallifrey, I put the task of protecting your mother and sister to you."

"Why?" he queried gently. "Where are _you_ going?"

He waved his hand nonchalantly. "Oh, just for a walk. Haven't seen Jack for a while. Plenty to catch up on, and knowing him, the catching up part of things might not be entirely child-friendly."

Gallifrey pouted. "You're going on an adventure, aren't you?"

"Well," he drawled. "Not really. If you consider _walking_ to be an adventure, then perhaps we are, but essentially, no. Just walking and boring adulty-type-talking that you would not be interested in." He slowly lifted his head toward a distant sound of hollering that seemed to be drawing quickly closer. "That," he commented quickly as he pulled himself free of Gallifrey and walked toward a crop of Rocks a slight distance away from them.

He gasped to find a sheer drop on the other side which opened up to reveal a large, high-tech construction site below. He blew out a breath of wonder as his three companions strode up beside him.

"What is that," Martha queried in a voice tinged with awe. "Is it a city?"

The Doctor made a small sound of thought as he rubbed at the back of his neck and let his eyes analyse the structure below them. "A city or a hive, or a nest, or a conglomeration." He tipped his head to one side. "Looks like it was grown."

"Look there," Gallifrey offered with a point of his finger down toward structure. "That looks like a series of pathways, roads, maybe?"

"Must've been life, some sort of life, a long time ago," the Doctor continued.

Martha was practically breathless as she took in the structure. "What killed it you think?"

He exhaled. "Time. Just time," he offered. "Everything's dying now. All the great civilizations have gone." He lifted his eyes. "This isn't just night. All the stars have burned up and faded away into nothing."

Jack set his foot onto a rock crag to lift his knee and press his elbow against it to look down over the edge of the cliff. "Well there has to be an atmospheric shell in place. We should be frozen to death."

The Doctor gave him a slow and critical look. "Well. Martha, Gal, and I, maybe. Not so sure about you, Jack."

Martha seemed heartbroken as she peered over the edge. "What about the people? Does no one survive?"

The Doctor exhaled a sigh. "I suppose we have to hope that life will find a way."

The sound that had drawn them to the edge of the cliff in the first place sounded out once more. Below them, a single figure ran along a narrow pathway, followed by a tribe of aggressors. Jack frowned.

"Well, he seems to be surviving well enough."

"For now," the Doctor muttered worriedly. His worry shifted to anger. "Is it just me, or does that look like a hunt?"

Gallifrey was already climbing over the rocks to make chase. He looked up with annoyance when he felt his father's hand come down on his shoulder.

"And where do you think you're going?"

Gallifrey looked to the Doctor with an expression on incredulity. "Where else? To help?"

"Gal…"

Gallifrey shirked out of his father's hold and slid down the steep embankment toward the hunt. He looked up as he slid. "Well? Come on!"

"Oh, he's just like you," Martha said with a chuckle as she leapt over the rocks to join Gallifrey in the slide diwn toward the city.

The Doctor winced and pressed his hand onto the rocks to vault over them. He looked toward Jack with an expression of long suffering tiredness.

Jack merely chuckled. "Oh don't pretend you don't want to do this, Doc," he said with a laugh. "God. I've missed this."

The Doctor lifted his eyes to the heavens and sighed deeply. He couldn't exactly disagree with Jack. Of course he wanted to help. He'd just be a lot more comfortable with it if his young son hadn't blindly leapt in ahead of him.

Oh, Rose was going to kill him.


	2. The Chase

A/N: Ooh. Thanks so very much for the warm welcome to part two of adventures of the Doctor, Rose, and their little lad Gallifrey.

I got busy over the past week or so, and haven't been able to update as frequently as I would like to. Hopefully that stretch is over and I can go back to really regular postings!

Only another couple of chapters of recognizable dialogue and bits and bobs before this fic takes a swing in a whole new direction ... I'm looking forward to getting to that bit, but foundations must be laid before I can get to that ... I'll get my feisty little man back shortly ...

I hope you enjoy ... It should start to pick up from here. All recognizable dialogue does belong to RTD and his writing team.

~~oooOOOooo~~

Yep. Rose was going to kill him, she'd let him regenerate, and then kill him all over again. In his opinion, she had every right to do just that. Oh, he could use the excuse that this was their _lifestyle –_ that the TARDIS regularly landed them in the middle of whatever trouble was brewing across the universe. So it was to be _expected_ that at one point or another if their precious little boy was under his supervision, then he going to end up in some form of mortal mischief…

…So she should know better than to leave young Gallifrey in _his_ care without _her_ ever-watchful eye on the both of them. Therefore, if she had to be mad at anyone, then it'd have to be herself.

Yep.

Yep again, and with a hard pop on the "p" to punctuate it!

The Doctor wore a grin of victory at that thought when his Converse shoes stopped their downward slide to end him up on solid ground beside Jack and Martha. His hands immediately found their place deep inside his trouser pockets, and he walked a victorious stride of three long steps before he found himself belly-to-face with his son – who wore a slightly suspicious expression upon his lightly freckled little face.

He stopped walking. He rocked back onto the heels of his plimsols, and tried not to look as guilty as he felt. "Did you make it down the hill without any scrapes or boo-boos, Flubble?"

Gallifrey kept his head low to watch his father through his brows, but spread out his arms either side of him and opened the gap between his feet in a practiced stance. "No boo-boos to speak of, but I know how you and Mum get, so look me over and see for yourself."

The Doctor twitched as though to investigate, but stopped himself short. If his son was saying he was okay, then he should believe him. He gave a light clearing of his throat. "Oh-kay. If you're sure, then."

Gallifrey blinked rapidly at that. He was used to having his mother ignore any assurances of his wellbeing and make her own very thorough assessment. With a smile and wide eyes of thrill he dropped his arms. "You? You _believe_ me?"

"Of course," the Doctor answered with a smile. "You wouldn't lie to me about that, would you?"

"Absolutely not," he averred firmly. "Thanks for trusting me. Mum wouldn't. She'd be all over me fussin' and carryin' on little a blue-ass fly…" He gasped and shot his father a panicked stare. "You didn't hear me just say that. Right, Dad?"

Jack chuckled as he rubbed at his chin and did his own walk around of the youngster. "So. You're asking your dad to hide _two_ things from your Mom," he drawled with a cheeky smirk. "Dropping the A-Bomb, _a-a-and_ the tear in the back of your trousers that no doubt has a rather hot little bit of road rash behind it."

Gallifrey gasped and twisted his back to take a look, but was quickly accosted by the Doctor, who had his Sonic Screwdriver at the ready to clear up any such injury. With the sound of laughter almost drowning out the buzz of the sonic and his father's hurried assurances that he'd fix it right up, Gallifrey levered a very dark look over the Doctor's shoulder toward Jack.

"I don't much like you right now," he declared darkly.

Jack didn't seem particularly upset by that. In fact, he simply laughed harder. "Oh, I can just see that having you along for the ride is just going to make this adventure so much more entertaining."

Gallifrey darkened his glare and clenched his fists at his side. "You know. Pickin' on a little kid isn't tough. It makes you a coward." He inhaled deeply. "And don't go thinkin' that I can't rebut with my own superior level of wit, because I can go toe to toe with anyone and make 'em cry out for their _momma_."

The Doctor sighed as he switched off his sonic and slowly drew himself up to a stand. "He's not talking about picking on you, Gal." He gave Jack a rather weary expression. "He's talking about having fun with _me_."

"Oh," he answered with a frown. His eyes lifted to his father. "Really?" He watched the Doctor nod lightly. "Why would he do that?"

"Well-l-l…"

Gallifrey didn't wait for what was going to follow that extended word. Instead he stalked a stamped foot stride toward Jack and poked his finger into his chest. "Yeah. Well I'm not gonna let that happen. You hear me? You're gonna have to go through me if you wanna go at my dad, because I …" He coughed. "Because I'm…" He paled. "Cause…"

Jack frowned with concern. "You okay, Kid?"

Martha looked with concern at Gallifrey's widening, watering eyes, his increasingly waning pallor, and the sudden onset of gulping breaths. "Gal?"

His voice was meek and whisper quiet. "Daddy. I don't feel…"

She quickly snatched a fistful of Jack's jacket and hauled him out of the way. "You might want to get away from ground zero," she warned as he stumbled sideways.

She managed to get Jack clear, and even got hold of the Doctor's shoulder to yank him backward, just in time for a long and loud belch to erupt from the youngster's mouth. The belch was followed by the contents of young Galifrey's stomach, which had both the Doctor and Jack look away with matching expressions of horror.

"Well that's disgusting," Jack said with a groan as the youngster heaved for a second time.

"It's also _your_ fault," the Doctor accused with a curl of his lip and a jab of his finger into Jack's chest. "If you weren't – weren't so – weren't all wibbly-wobbly against the lad's time senses, this wouldn't be happening to him."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Jack charged in reply, trying to use a growl to shield his hurt confusion over the accusation. "How can him hurling chunks at the ground be _my_ fault?"

"I just told you," he snapped in return as he stalked toward his child. He shook his hands beside his ears as he looked back to Jack. "You're all... You're messing with his time sense…"

"How?" he demanded.

Gallifrey remained hunched over with his hands clutching tightly at his knees as he coughed at the ground. He waved his hand behind him to ward off his father's approach. "S'Okay. I'm good now. I think."

There was a holler from just up ahead of them, which had each member of their party still in place. Gallifrey rose to a stand and, with his father's call for him to come, he turned to the side with the intent to take place beside the Doctor.

He didn't get a chance to do it.

He'd only shifted his right foot in the lead of his left when he was suddenly met face-to-face with a wild-eyed man that burst through the scrub that the young lad had only moments ago been heaving into. His eyes widened and he let out a startled sound as the man thrust his arms forward to grab at his waist and haul him up over his shoulder.

"Dad!" he cried out sharply as the man continued to run without falter. "Dad! Help me!"

The cry for help was unnecessary. The moment that Gallifrey's feet had left the ground, the Doctor launched from his stilled position beside Jack. His son's name burst out from between his lips as he reached for his sonic and then hollered for the man to release his child.

The man didn't stop. He didn't slow down. He clutched harder at his small, wriggling, quarry and continued on his path unabated. "If I were you," he warned over his shoulder as he looked back beyond the small group and into the darkness behind them. "I'd run. Run for your life!"

The Doctor issued a furious demand for the release of his child.

"They're coming, you fool," the stranger answered back with warning. "They're coming, and if we don't keep moving, they'll capture all of us."

"Release the kid," Jack demanded sharply. He pulled his gun from a holster underneath his jacket and held it ahead of him, aiming mid-stride with both hands. "Or I'll take your head off."

Gallifrey's eyes widened in horror. He peeped in fright as he ducked his head underneath his arms in hiding.

The Doctor slapped at Jack's hands to shove the gun toward the ground. "Don't you dare," he yelled. "Jack. That's my son."

"Exactly," he growled in reply as he lifted the gun again. "And this monster's got him. Trust me. I'm a good shot."

"I'm not taking that risk," the Doctor snapped with another swat at Jack's hands. "You're not firing in the direction of my son!"

"I'm not a _monster_ ," the man yelled back. "I'm Human! And I'll give you your boy back when we get to safety." He pointed his free arm behind him, toward the sounds of yelling and whooping coming from the distance. "They're your _monsters_. Now stop arguing and run!"

Both Jack and the Doctor spun mid-stride to keep their pace and look behind them at the rapidly approaching group of hunters. They were horribly outnumbered, and they knew that they didn't have the speed to outrun them. With that knowledge, the two men shared a look and a silent agreement. The Doctor reached for Martha's hand as Jack raised his gun high to shoot in the air.

They each skidded to a slowed jog as the group shrieked and then dispersed into the brush.

"That's it," Jack bellowed into the darkness. "Run and hide."

"Doctor," Martha yelled worriedly, her words hoarse through panted breath. "What are they?"

The stranger shook his head and renewed his sprint before the Doctor could answer her question. He answered in a louder tone of voice to overtalk Gallifrey's call for his father. "Quiet down, boy. There's more of them."

The Doctor skipped sideways in the run to point upward toward the TARDIS. "Please. Give me back my son. Put him down. I can take you to my ship." He gestured more urgently upward. "Just up there. She's close. Not far at all. Just up there. She's safe…"

From above, more hunters appeared. Their faces were painted with tribal markings, and their teeth sharpened and gleaming in the darkness. One by one, they leaps over the crag's edge and slid along the hill toward them.

The Doctor felt his hearts sink inside his chest. "Okay. Maybe not."

The stranger jostled the youngster on his shoulder and increased the speed in his stride. "Just follow me," he ordered firmly. "Follow me to safety. We're close to the silo. If we can get in there, then we're safe. They can't get in."

Martha tugged hard at the Doctor's hand. "Silo, Doctor?" she questioned urgently.

"The TARDIS," he breathed worriedly. "If they have the TARDIS…"

"Rose is fine," she assured him with a huff. "She's protected by the TARDIS. She's safe. But we aren't. So start moving." She snapped her head to the man. "Take us to the silo." She flicked her eyes to Jack, who was still running backward with his gun held high. "Jack?"

"Silo works for me," he answered shortly.

The gates of the silo appeared quickly on the languid horizon. Despite the panic and the rush of the small group of five, the gates loomed so lazily ahead of them; a silent black woven tapestry of wires standing as sentinels between the men on one side, and the tribe of huntsmen on the other.

The man who still held Gallifrey on his shoulders called sharply to the pair of men standing guard at the gate.

"It's the Futurekind!" he called urgently. "Open the gate."

The guards held their weapons high to look down the barrel at the grouping. There was threat and warning in his voice as he hollered an order to them.

"Show me your teeth!" he demanded as they approached at a run. "Show me your teeth!"

The Doctor inadvertently bared his as his lips lifted into a curl of confusion. "What?"

"Show me your teeth," the guard demanded again. "Or I'll leave you to their mercy."

The Man looked back at the three time travelers. "Show them your teeth!"

All four adults grimaced an exaggerated lift of their lips to bare their teeth. The guard lowered his gun to assess each one with practiced ease. He then lifted his hand and held his palm outward. "Human! They're human. Let them in!"

Further cries of "Let them in" shifted down along a short line, and the gate opened just enough to let them all curl around the main pole. They barely had time to step through before the gate slammed shut behind them.

Jack stumbled slightly at the sharp sound of metal colliding against metal, and quickly found his chest full of a yelping Martha Jones as the Doctor stalked rudely past the both of them toward the man who still held his child hostage.

"Right," he growled sharply. "Let my son down."

Regardless of whether or not the man had the will to let Gallifrey to the ground, he had very little choice. The young lad squirmed, wriggled, kicked and struggled to finally fall off the man's shoulders and onto his knees in the dirty and dusty floor. It was only a second before he launched off his knees and torpedoed himself into his father's belly. He wrapped himself around the Doctor's legs and hips with such desperate enthusiasm that he practically climbed him like the Flubble his father accused him of being.

"I was so scared, Dad," he whimpered against his belly. "So scared."

"It's okay," he cooed softly. "I've got you now."

At his son's continuing whimpering and snuffling against his blazer, the Doctor raked a furious gaze upward. "You just made a big mistake," he warned darkly. "I don't know – nor particularly care – who you are, but if you don't have an excuse reasonable enough to justify terrifying my son like that, then I'll find a way to obliterate you and then everyone else on this planet. I don't care if we're at the end of the universe and it'll destroy the last remnants of life in this universe."

There was no explanation forthcoming as the hot popping sound of a discharging machine gun blistered and lit the night that surrounded them.

"Go back to where you came from," a guard hollered toward a gathering on the other side of the fence.

Men, with faces painted and teeth sharp and jiggered, licked the air through the winding gaps of the fence. "Humans. Humani. Make feast."

The guard held his gun up again. "Go back, I say. Back to where you came from, I say!"

The Doctor watched the tribal chieftan lick at the air and make threatening, shuddering inhales through his teeth at them. "Who are you?"

"Kind watch you," he answered back. "Kind hungry."

"Leave us be," the Doctor warned quietly as his hold tightened around Gallifrey. "There's no meal here tonight."

"Hungry," the Chieftan repeated.

The Doctor shook his head. "Then find yourself another meal. You won't be getting fed here."

The Chieftan stared a flat look toward the Doctor. They held each other's gaze for a long moment. When the moment had passed, the Chieftan broke the stare and looked to his people. He silently flicked his hand and turned away from the fence. Inside only a second, the tribe had disappeared into the darkness.

Jack stepped up beside the Doctor, taking care to stand opposite to Gallifrey. "Who were they," he queried after a thick swallow over a dry tongue.

"Tribesman," the Doctor answered gently. "Wild men forced to hunt to feed their families." He shifted his eyes toward Jack. "Not unlike the early days of Humankind, really." He looked back to the darkness. "Doing what needs to be done in order to survive and live on."

"Cannibalism, though," Martha queried with obvious distaste.

The Doctor snorted and released himself from his light trance of discovery with a shake. "Not unheard of, Cannibalism," he answered with a shrug. "Oh, species across the entire universe engage in acts of cannibalism. Even on Earth. Survival's survival," he muttered with a scratch at his sideburn. "You do what you have to do to carry on."

The Guard tapped at The Doctor's shoulder with his gun. He didn't seem to be affected by the heated glare of absolute disgust at the act by the Time Lord. "Come on. Let's get you in side."

The unnamed man shifted into the space between the Doctor and the guard to bounce lightly on his toes. "My name is Padra," he offered with a shaking voice. "Padra Toc Shafe Cane. Tell me. Just tell me. Can you take me to Utopia?"

The guard gave him a genuine smile and stepped back to let the group pass. "Oh yes, Sir. Yes, I can."

Jack walked up beside the Doctor as the group made their way inside the Silo. He kept Martha as tight and close against his side as the Doctor kept young Gallifrey.

"Doc," he asked under his breath. "What do you think?"

"Did we side with the right group, you think?"

Jack nodded. "Yeah."

The Doctor took his time with a swallow. "I hope so, Jack. I really do."


	3. Rocket

A/N: I'm going to admit that I have only watched this episode once, and therefore am really making up the scenes in my head as I go along. Sorry if I'm messing up with any of your own images of it...

While I am certainly stealing some dialogue from RTD as I meander my way toward where I can make this completely my own ... I find that I'm not really liking it as it was actually written, so I am tweaking the lines here and there to fit my own view of things. Again, sorry if it messes with you a bit...

I hope you enjoy!

~~oooOOOooo~~

As far as Silos went, this one wasn't too shabby. Well. Not that young Gallifrey Tyler had a lot of first-hand knowledge to compare it to, anyway. Sure, the term "silo" had more applications that the one that immediately came to the mind of the youngster. Forgive him for the immediate image of a tall cylindrical structure filled with grains that came to mind when the word "silo" was spoken. Although his young life with his mother, and the endless running from military types, the image of a missile silo never once came to mind…

…Which said a lot for how much Rose Tyler tried to shield him from it all. She made sure that any and all references to such things were held to better images; that he would only picture scenes found in children's tales.

By the Gods he hoped she was okay, and that Auntie TARDIS was looking after her.

With a look down at his hand, where he could feel the cool hold of the Doctor's hand in his, he concentrated on his connection to his father. Despite the Doctor's assurances otherwise, Gallifrey could feel his dad's worry for Rose across their link. The Doctor was obviously trying to outwardly project complete calm about the gigantic chasm of hostile territory between them and Rose right now, but he couldn't completely shield the leak of worry that spread across their link.

He lifted his eyes to his father and spoke his name softly to get his attention.

The Doctor's hand tightened slightly around his in acknowledgement that he'd heard his son's quiet plea for attention, but he didn't immediately look away from the man he was already speaking with.

"It's a Box, a big blue box" he advised the man with urgent firmness. "I'm sorry, but I really need her back. She's stuck out there."

Stuck, indeed. With creepy cannibals no doubt licking their lips as they circled around it. They might have lost out on a meal because of the gates and fences surrounding the silo, but if his mum found out that they'd all left and then decided to go out looking for them … He gasped and tugged urgently at the Doctor's hand.

"Dad!"

The Doctor petted the air in front of Gallifrey with his free hand to ask him for just a moment more. It made young Gallifrey frown a little to be so easily dismissed, but he shrugged it off. The strange man who had treated him like a sack of potatoes – Padra - was currently over talking his dad with a demand of his own, so he got the reasons why. It didn't stop him from lifting his thumb to his mouth so he could gnaw nervously at his thumbnail.

"I'm sorry," Padra repeated again when the Doctor tried to describe the TARDIS again. "But my family were headed for the silo. I – I separated from them to distract the futurekind. So they could get away." His tone was urgent. "Please tell me. Did they get here? Did they make it? My mother is Kristane Shafekane. My Brother is Beltone."

The Doctor pressed on. "A blue box," he urged. "My wife is in that box. Please. She's expecting…"

Padra stopped talking long enough to offer the Doctor a puzzled look. "You hold your wife in a box?"

The Doctor blinked at the question and then lifted his hand to scratch at his sideburn. He looked anywhere but at the man in question. "Well. It's a pretty _big_ box."

The security officer who had been enduring the demands of both men, an attractive dark-skinned man with deep-set and soulful eyes and a kindly smile, nodded toward the Doctor, but shifted his attention toward Padra. "The computers are down, but you can check the paperwork. If your family have arrived, the information will be there."

Padra slumped with relief. "Thank you."

The Officer looked around Padra and called a name into the corridor. "Creet!"

The small head of a boy not much older than Gallifrey appeared from around the corner. His eyes first fell upon Gallifrey, and then shifted with a snap toward the Officer. A blink was all he offered in the way of an acknowledgement to the officer.

"A passenger needs help."

Creet gave a firm nod and emerged fully from the corner. He wiped a small hand on the thighs of his dusty trousers. His other hand clutched at a clipboard. "Right," he answered obediently. "What d'you need?"

Padra walked across the floor toward the child and looked down at his clipboard. "My family," he stated softly. "I need to know if they're here."

Gallifrey watched the youngster with wide eyes. His fingers flexed against his father's hold, and then wriggled to seek freedom. The Doctor's hold on his tiny hand tightened further to prevent his escape.

"Not now, Gal."

"But…"

"No buts," the Doctor warned. "You're staying beside me until I am sure that this place is safe." His eyes lifted to the Officer. "Now, about my ship."

"A blue box, you said," the Officer asked tiredly.

"That's right," the Doctor answered with an eager nod of his head. "Big, tall, wooden. Says "Police"."

The Officer nodded. The light smile that curled the edges of his mouth was one more of sympathetic apology than an assurance that it'd be found in one piece. ""We're driving out for a last water collection. I can't make you any promises, but I'll see what I can do."

The Doctor drew out a breath that held a small amount of relief. "Thank you."

Creet waved his hand and turned on his heel in an invitation for Padra and the Doctor to follow him. "Right, then. Come on."

Gallifrey frantically tugged his hand free of his father and skipped eagerly toward the boy. He quickly evaded the Doctor's hand as he leaned forward to reclaim him and thrust his hands into his pockets as he fell into stride beside the boy.

"I'm Gallifrey," he said with cheer. "Gallifrey Tyler. Well. My actual name is Gallifreypetertylerlongbarrowmas, but that's a bit of a mouthful for anyone to remember, so you can call me Gallifrey – or Gal. Either, or." He scratched at his ear. "I know your name's Creet. I heard the officer call you that. That's a cool name, Creet. So where's it from? What's the origin? I'm named after my dad's home planet. Gallifrey," he said again. "In the Kasterborous constellation…"

"You can talk, can't you," Creet drawled without looking at him.

Gallifrey awkwardly tugged at his ear. "Yeah. That's what they say. Bit of a talker, me. Got my gob from my dad .., or from my nanna. Not quite sure which of them's responsible for it, really. They're both gifted in gab." He heard a hard sigh behind him and looked over his shoulder toward his father, who had his eyes rolled up to the ceiling. "Deny it, Dad."

He shook his head, then lowered his gaze to his son. He held out his hand to him. "Gal. Come here."

Gallifrey shook his head. "Nope. I'm chatting with my new friend." He grinned at Creet, who looked nonplussed and fairly disinterested. "Right? We can be friends, yeah?"

Creet shrugged.

"So," Gallifrey sang with a smile. "How old are you, Creet? I'm nearly nine, now. At least I think I am." He pursed his lips. "With all the travel through time and space, I've kind've lost track to be honest. Let's see. I was Eight at Farrington. Linear time I was there a week, tops. Then with a total of seven months spent on Gallifrey with Dad – in his fourth incarnation, cause this Dad," he thumbed behind him, "he was all human-y at the time and not quite all my dad – and then three months stuck in 1969…"

The Doctor's voice said his name in warning from behind him.

"Oh let him be, Doctor," Martha said with a soft laugh. "He doesn't really get the chance to talk with other children."

Jack snorted. "More like the other children don't get to _talk_."

Gallifrey didn't look at him, but he thrust a hand behind him to point sharply toward Jack. "Still don't know if I like you yet, so you can hush."

"If only _you_ could," he shot back with obvious amusement.

"Anyway, Creet," Gallifrey sang. "How old are you?"

"Old enough to work," Creet answered firmly and without any emotion in his voice. He led the group through a rusted doorway into a new corridor. "This way."

A look of disappointment crossed Gallifrey's face, and he lowered his head to let out a small sigh. Both hands slid inside his trouser pockets and he kicked at the floor as he walked and listened to the boy call out to the people the name of Padra's family members. "Yeah. Oh-kay."

The Doctor paused for just a moment as they stepped into a corridor that was lined with people camped along its walls. He felt an ache inside his hearts in sympathy for them all as he wondered just what it was that brought them all here, and just what struggles they had faced to lead them to camp out like this.

Martha's expression mirrored his own. He heard her small intake of breath as she took in the scene for herself. "It's like a refugee camp," she noted quietly.

Jack's nose scrunched up with unshielded disgust as he caught the scent of the gathering. "Stinking." His eyes fell to the seated form of a large man whose stare indicated that he'd taken affront to the words. "Oh," he breathed out apologetically. "Sorry. No offence."

The Doctor actually smiled as his hands slid inside his trouser pockets and he looked around with an expression that was close to awe. "Don't you see that?" he began excitedly. "The ripe old smell of humans. You survived." He grinned and looked to his two companions. "Oh, so muc better than a million years evolving into clouds of gas, don't you think? Oh, and then another million as downloads, but you always revert to the same basic shape. Humans. The Fundamental human shape."

To his front, Creet continued to basically ignore Gallifrey's attempts at securing friendship, and called out for Kristane Shafekane to reveal herself.

The Doctor continued on with his line of thought with a smile on his face. "End of the universe and here you are. Indomitable." He grinned a manic grin. "That's the word! Indomitable!" He finished his thought with a single laugh of triumph.

Creet flicked a look at him and then looked away with a shake of his head. "Is there a Kristane Shafekane?"

And older woman with white hair and filthy clothing pressed her hands into the wall to lift herself to a stand. Her aged voice called across the corridor. "That's me."

Padra stepped forward. There was a look of apprehenasion on his face that quickly turned to one of relief. "Mother?"

She let out a gasp and her frail hands flew to her mouth when she caught sight of her son. "Oh my God."

Padra looked beyond his mother toward a man who had stepped up behind her. His eyes widened and filled with tears. "Beltone?" His arms open and he leapt forward over several pairs of legs sprawled along the floor to embrace his family.

Martha watched the scene with misted eyes and a soft smile. "Oh, it's not all bad," she breathed happily. "As long as you have each other."

The Doctor threaded his arm across her shoulder and tugged her lightly toward him. "It's all you need, Martha Jones. The embrace and love of the people who matter most to you. With that, you can survive anything." He held his hand out toward Gallifrey, who stood still in place to watch as Creet flawlessly moved around the scattered peoples answering questions and checking on their needs.

"Gallifrey," he called gently to rouse the youngster from his thoughts. "Some here, Son."

Gallifrey didn't turn his body toward his father. He remained in place with a longing expression on his face. "Can I help him out, do you think, Dad?" He pursed his lips and didn't take his eyes of the child in front of him. "Do you think he'd let me?"

The Doctor gently separated himself from Martha and slowly approached his child. "What I think," he began carefully. "Is that you might be better off staying with us."

Gallifrey turned quickly to the Doctor and looked up at him with pleading in his eyes. "Please, Dad. I promise I won't get in the way at all."

"I don't want to let you out of my sight," he admitted gently. "We don't know these people…"

"That never stops you, though," Gallifrey pleaded. "I know it doesn't. Mum told me that. No matter what; if they need our help, we offer it."

The Doctor shook his head. "I'd really feel much more comfortable if you'd stay with us – where I can keep an eye on you."

"Doc, give the boy a shot at it," Jack offered cautiously. "These guys are going to know where we are. If he gets too much for them, then they can send him back to us."

Gallifrey grinned a smile as wide as his eyes. "Oh, now I think I _like_ you, Jack."

The Doctor shook his head. "Sorry, Flubble. Stay with us, and when we've got a better idea of where we are and who these people are, then maybe I'll let you go get dirty with the other lads."

"And my dislike has moved in _your_ direction," he grumped petulantly as his arms snatched to fold across his chest. His affronted expression and curled lip perfectly accented his annoyance. "Your Fourth incarnation – the _fun_ dad – would let me play."

The Doctor blinked a slow close of his eyes. His annoyance at being compared to his younger self was clear – which he knew was Gallifrey's purpose in making such a comment. He kept his tone low. "Take a look around you, Gallifrey. None of the children here are at _play_. Now. Come here and pull in your bottom lip. Pouting is unbecoming of a Time Lord."

Gallifrey stalked past his father and nestled himself into Martha's side. "Then it's a good thing I have the half-human part of me to fall back on, isn't it?"

Martha looked up at the Doctor with a helpless expression. She mouthed her apology as her arm settled across the young lad's shoulder.

The Doctor let out a short huff and shook his head. He let out a breath of resignation and flicked his fingers to ask Jack to follow him toward a large metal door. "Come on, Jack. Let's at least look around, yeah?"

Jack's attention had filtered itself elsewhere – toward a handsome young man that offered a smile as he passed by the group. Jack held out his hand, smiling his most disarming grin when the young man took it. "Captain Jack Harkness. And who are you?"

"Stop it!" The Doctor grunted as he pulled his sonic screw driver from his breast pocket and held it to the door lock.

Jack very reluctantly let go of the attractive man's hand and then held up both hands and held his grin firmly in place as he walked toward the door. "I'm just saying hello."

"Yeah, sure you were," the Doctor muttered. "Now give us a hand with this. It's half deadlocked." His eyes flicked up to a keypad beside the door. "See if you can overwrite the code so we can find out where we are."

There was a hiss at the mechanism that locked the door, which brought a triumphant cheer to the Captain's mouth. "Piece of cake!"

The slid open quickly enough that the Doctor was slightly startled. He stumbled forward and let out a yelp as his whole body pitched forward to fall through the doorway. Jack's arms quickly circled around him to prevent him falling down into the deep pit below.

"It's okay," Jack hollered out. "Gotcha."

The Doctor took a panted breath as he stumbled against the doorframe. In no time at all he had a small chestnut and crimson rocket collide hard against his belly and then worriedly wrap himself around his legs. "It's okay. I'm okay, Gal. No need to worry."

"Don't scare me like that," he whispered into his father's belly.

Jack leaned down to look into the chasm below. "How did you possibly cope without me, then?" His eyes widened and he let out a breath through pursed lips. "Wow."

Martha shifted in beside Jack and held tight to him as she leaned forward to look down. She blinked with surprise at the sight of a rocket's oblong nose that jutted up from below. It was clear that the body of the ship filled the cylindrical room almost wall to wall.

"Now _that_ is what I call a rocket," she remarked with awe.

The Doctor held onto his son with a protective grasp as he leaned forward to take a look for himself. His eyes were wide as he shook his head slowly from side to side. "They're not refugees," he admitted with hurtling realization. "They're passengers."

Jack winced with worry. "Passengers of _what?"_

"Well," the Doctor answered with a gesture toward the rocket with his hand. "Of _that_."

"Well I got that much, thanks," Jack snarked in reply.

The Doctor shrugged, and smirked. Martha licked at the side of her mouth. "Well he said they were going to Utopia."

"Who did?"

Martha pointed behind them. "Uhm. The guy. Back there. Didn't quite catch his name." She looked to the Doctor. "But that's what I heard them say, anyway. That they were Uoing to Utopia. Have you heard of it, Doctor?"

He inhaled hard, not taking his eyes off the rocket, and let his eyes widen. "The perfect place," he began after an inhale. "100 trillion years and it's still the same old dream for the human race. Utopia."

"Like the Garden of Eden," Gallifrey offered. He tipped himself slightly to the side to take a look at the ships propulsion systems. "Do you recognize the engines?"

The Doctor grinned and tightened his grip on his son. "Great question, my boy. Brilliant! Just like your mother." He inhaled and his smile fell. "And no. I don't." He looked to Jack. "You?"

Jack's brow pinched as he let his eyes trace over the engines. "Nope. Whatever it is, it's not rocket science."

"Oh ha ha."

Jack kept his eyes on the rocket. "But whatever it is. It's hot."

"Boiling," the Doctor agreed. He stepped he and Gallifrey backward and indicated for Jack and Martha to do the same. He considered it as Jack closed the door to shut them away from the Rocket.

"But Dad," Gallifrey offered curiously. "You said this is the end of the universe. There's nothing left…"

"Exactly," he answered softly. "And if the universe is falling apart, then what does Utopia mean?" He inhaled a startled breath as a white-haired, older gentlemen suddenly burst into the group and strode directly toward Jack. "Hold up…"

The Man's voice was panted and excitable as he rose up onto his toes to look into Jack's face. "Tell me. Are you the Doctor?"

Jack shook his head and then flicked his eyes toward the Doctor. The man swallowed over a dry tongue and turned to follow Jack's gaze. His expression was hopeful as he looked him up and down with careful analysis. "You? Are you the Doctor?"

The Doctor couldn't help but offer up his most manic grin. "That's me."

The old man's face broke out into an expression of sheer elation and relief. He grabbed at the Doctor's hand and led him away from the group.

"Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good," he chanted over and over.

The Doctor looked back toward his group with brows high and amusement setting his features. "And that's good, apparently."

Jack, Martha and Gallifrey watched with matching expressions of surprise as the old man dragged the Doctor away from them. It was Jack that finally asked the question that was on all their minds.

"Okay. Can anyone tell me what _that_ was all about?" He then frowned. "And why isn't anyone ever that excited to see me?"


	4. TARDIS Annoyance

A/N: Just a quick snippet today ... for those of you worried about Rose and whether or not she's going to go wandering about and get into mischief.

I make no apologies for the TARDIS and her "improved" sentience ..

~~oooOOOooo~~

It was an annoyed hum from the TARDIS that finally stirred Rose Tyler to full wakefulness. Having basically passed out in the Doctor's bed the moment she fell into it, Rose actually opted to ignore the prodding of the time machine in favour of trying to get another few minutes of sleep. Chances were that the annoyance she could feel through her connection to the old girl was due to Doctor-related tinkering, anyway.

"Just give him a little zap like you normally do," she whined softly as she rolled onto her side and cocooned herself inside the thick down-filled duvet. "One day he might get the hint."

The TARDIS continued to poke and prod inside her mind with about the same level of tenacity that her son held when he wanted her to get up and out of bed. Rose huffed in response. She then rolled onto her back and spread out into a starfish shape to stare angrily up at the ceiling.

"What do you want _me_ to do about him?" She asked the ceiling hotly. She lifted a finger to point up at the twisted coral above her. "You know how he gets. You an' him were separated for three months by those Angel things. Of course he's gonna want to tinker around a bit under your console to make sure they didn't do nothing to you." She pulled the duvet up over her head. "If you zappin' him isn't working, then what do you think _I_ could possibly do to stop him?"

She gave an adolescent chuckle. "Aside from _that_ of course."

The ship didn't seem to find her joke amusing at all, but rather than sending her a wave of admonishment for ignoring her annoyance, the TARDIS merely sent a telepathic wave with such force that she may as well have been Gallifrey bouncing up and down on the bed chanting: "getupgetupgetupgetupgetup."

Rose actually jerked in response. She pumped her hands in the air in a downward motion that matched her words of asking the ship to settle down.

"Okay, girl. Okay," she chanted as she slid off the mattress and toed her feet into a pair of well-worn runners that had long ago been converted to slippers. She shook her head as she pulled a ratted and oversized old hoodie over her camisole and cropped yoga pants. "Really. If you want me up and out of bed without any argument, then you really shouldn't make the bed so comfortable that I don't want to get up."

Her eyes widened and she paused in her walk to the door. "Never mind. Forget I said that. Knowing you, I'll end up coming back to the bedroom to find a hay-filled mattress from the turn of the 1900's."

The TARDIS pushed Rose forward with more urgency in her telepathic demands, and Rose stopped arguing. Obviously whatever the Doctor was up to right now was really upsetting the old girl, and if it wasn't seen to quickly, then there'd probably end up being an all-out TARDIS tantrum…

…And, really, the universe didn't need that happening now, did it?

She soothed her hand along the corridor walls in an attempt to soothe out the TARDIS' annoyance.

"It's okay. I'll come up with something to distract him, sweetheart," she cooed. "Don't you worry about it."

The feeling of annoyance inside her head didn't abate, in fact it actually increased. When that annoyance shifted to fury, Rose shifted from lazy walk into a frantic run along the grating toward the console room. TARDIS didn't get mad very often – even when the Doctor's tinkering _did_ go too far – so whatever was boiling her circuitry was a far greater threat than a bored Time Lord.

Rose burst into the console room with a yell for the Doctor. She skidded sideways on grated flooring on worn rubber soles in an attempt to stop, but ended up stumbling a trip and a step to collide her hip against the console's edge. She "oomphed" and spluttered, but found her balance and looked around the console room.

It was empty.

Rose felt her heart sink inside her chest. An empty console room and a panicking TARDIS meant only one thing: That the Doctor had somehow gotten himself into trouble … no doubt with their son standing right at his side.

Rose let out a cough through a set jaw. "Oh. I'm gonna kill him."

The TARDIS let out a blip and a tweet from the rotor column that may have protested Rose's threat against her thief.

"Oh," Rose muttered as she flicked her wrist and wandered toward the door. "He'll regenerate, don't worry. I'm not going to kill him _that_ hard." She paused to consider that a moment. She then shook her head, shrugged her shoulders and continued to the door. "Well maybe not. Depends just _what_ mischief he's gotten Gal into, doesn't it?" She turned to walk a backward stride and pointed up at the column. "And _I'm_ the one he calls _jeopardy friendly_. Ha!"

Rose paused at the door and took a look down at herself. Dressed in what she considered appropriate nap-time sleepwear with a beat up old hoodie and sneakers that should have been discarded at least a decade earlier, she wasn't in fine _run for our lives_ attire. But with no time to change, she merely let out a rough sigh and gripped the lock tumbler with her thumb and index finger to unlock the door and step outside into … wherever … but was surprised when the tumbler kept spinning without releasing the lock.

She kept turning and looked back to the rotor. "Is that you?" she queried worriedly. "Are you stopping me from leaving?"

The TARDIS replied with a wave of worry through their telepathic link, and a series of bleeps and brips from the column.

"I see," Rose answered carefully. "Whatever's out there is something you think is too dangerous, yeah?"

The question was answered not by the TARDIS, but by heavy pounding on the doors. Rose jumped backward from the doors and slowly strode backward. She could hear strong voices on the other side of the door, but none that matched her son or her husband.

"TARDIS?"

The column beeped again in a trill of worried squeaks. The squeak turned to a computerized shriek at the sound of metal striking at the doors. Rose spun a full 180-degrees and ran up the ramp toward the console. "What is it, girl?" she questioned hurriedly as she pulled the monitor around. "What's out there and how long have they been bothering you?"

The monitor flickered on without command and the terrifying face of a wild tribesman flashed onscreen in full HD glory. Rose gasped and leapt backward, colliding with the jumpseat and stumbling in her surprise.

"What the hell is _that_?" she hollered. Her eyes lifted to the rotor column. "Tell me my son hasn't been taken by them, TARDIS. Tell me he's not in their hands!"

The rotor bleeped and trilled her brips in reply, but the wave of assurance that her travelling companions were safe from the menace at the doors were drowned out by a more aggressive attempt to get through the TARDIS doors.

"God. Tell me they can't get through," she muttered under her breath as she slowly drew herself to a stand from the jump seat. "Not the hoardes of Genghis Khan," she assured herself inside a breath. She swallowed a lump and looked to the rotor column. "Promise me they're safe, TARDIS. I don't want my son…"

Rose yelped and cowered as a rather loud metal clang sounded out from the doors. She remained cowered under her arm as she ran to the safety of the console. "Tell me what to do," she yelped. "They're being relentless out there, and I know you're low on power. How can I protect you?"

Her hands hovered over the controls. She had absolutely no idea what to do to be able to maximize the TARDIS extrapolator shielding and maybe try and locate the Doctor to let him know that his beloved machine was under attack.

"Tell me," she demanded with a look to the monitor. "Surely you can put some instructions on the screen for me. You can fly yourself, I've seen you do it. You did it for Gal. Shielding should be easy-peasy compared to that, yeah?" The console flashed, and buttons depressed, and data scrolled across the screen.

Rose narrowed her eyes into a squint as she watched the circular patterns flicker to another alien-like language, and then back to the circles once more. The column beeped and bripped, then trilled with slight alarm.

But it all went silent outside…

Rose looked to the door and then back to the monitor. She let her eyes drop to the keyboard and fluttered her fingers across the keys to bring up the surveillance feed. Her breath shuddered to see that the attack against the TARDIS continued incessantly.

"Are you going to hold up okay, old girl?" she questioned softly. She waited for the blips and beeps to answer and then let out a breath. "Do you have any way of knowing where to find the Doctor, Martha and Gal?"

The apologetic wave in her mind and the slow trill of beeps that answered the question had Rose drop her head. Her shoulders slumped low. "And you're not going to let me go outside to find them, are you?"

The TARDIS knew the question was rhetorical and therefore didn't answer. Her column remained silent, it's glow dull. Rose nodded slowly to acknowledge the answer held inside the silence of the machine, and let out a breath as she walked to the door once again.

"Still," she said with a sigh as she pressed one hand on the door and lifted the other to try the lock again. "Worth a shot, isn't it? Because my husband, my son, and a woman that I actually really like is somewhere out there. I don't know if they're safe, if they need my help…" She looked back with hope toward the console column. "You understand, yeah? The father of my children, TARDIS. Dad to Gal…" She pressed her hand to her belly. "And to this new little one. He's out there and he might be hurt."

The beeps and trills and broops from the column sharply told Rose that she wasn't going to be guilted into letting her out into the throng still pounding at her walls.

Rose slumped and groaned loudly. "I get it. The Doctor told you to keep an eye on me, didn't he? He told you that you weren't allowed to let me out no matter what?" She let out a furious breath. "No need to answer that one, either, old girl. I get it. I can just see him being all rude and pointing at you with an order to make sure I didn't leave. Am I right?"

The replying trills were somewhat indignant toward Rose's charge, which indicated that the TARDIS was quite insulted of the accusation that her protection was only at the insistence of her pilot. The monitor flashed white and then replayed the image of her passengers leaving her console room – without any such orders for protection.

The column chittered with obvious insult and Rose could practically see the old Time Capsule fold her arms across her chest and turn away with a petulant sniff.

Rose felt immediate guilt. "Oh. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that. I know that you're first in line to come to mine and Gal's defense." She turned in place and pressed her back against the doors, and then let out a breath and slid down the wall to sit on the floor. She gave the rotor column a solemn look. "Quicker than the Doctor, sometimes. Well. When you can, anyway."

A single trill from low to high sounded in response, which made Rose smile. "I love you, too," she assured the ship softly as she drew her knees into her chest. She let silence fall for a moment, and then looked back to the column. Her chin rested on her knees and her voice was slightly strained as she spoke.

"So are just expected to wait around and do nothing? I mean, can't we maybe find a way to materialize wherever they're all being held and make a grand rescue?" She grinned with encouragement. "The sisters of time, TARDIS and her Wolf, running in to save the day."

The console remained silent, but Rose felt her apologize over their connection. "Can't do it, yeah? Not unless a security protocol is activated or something, right?"

That got a single beep in response.

"And if I said that you and I quickly set one up right now, that won't qualify, will it?" She huffed at another wave of apology. "No. I didn't think so."

She was silent for a few seconds, but then continued with her urging. "I just want to make sure they're all okay, yeah? They're my family, TARDIS. They're all I have." She inhaled a shaking breath. "I can't live without them."

The rotor trilled in agreement.

"So how about letting me out then, yeah?" she tried with a smile. "Let me go out and find my baby and his daddy?"

The trill of reply was sharp and slightly angry.

"Okay," Rose huffed. "I get it. Sorry. Sorry for wanting to make sure my family is safe."

The rotor glowed furiously and a litany of sharp sounds emanated from deep within its core. A shower of sparks rained down over the top of where Rose was seated. She quickly cowered underneath her arms and cried out her apologies.

A small lavender light softly brightening in the darkness of the corridor was missed by both ship and passenger, as was the glint inside the whites of a pair of whiskey eyes shielded underneath a thickly chopped blonde fringe of hair. The light buzzed a familiar sound that pitched high and then low as the signal searched to attach itself to the Time Rotor signal.

With a groan and a whine the column started to shift and pulse with the energy of dematerialization, which seemed to catch the TARDIS completely by surprise. Her whining was long and soulful and called for Rose to come closer.

The whiskey eyes watched as Rose Tyler shot up from the ground and ran toward the console with a question of what was happening on her lips.

"It's okay, Mum. We'll get you where you need to be."

A pair of green eyes appeared over the shoulder of the woman in the darkness, and a soft and silken voice whispered against her ear. "Did you activate the materialization sequence I uploaded?"

She nodded. "Yeah."

He sensed her worry via a shudder across their link. "Are you sure you're up for this, Tia?"

"No," she answered with a sigh. "I'm really not, Gal. I'm really, really, not."

"Do you want to leave?" he asked her gently. "I can give you the manipulator and you can go back. Cobblemouse and I can handle this."

She shook her head.

"They'll be okay, Tia" he offered gently. "We'll be okay. I promise."

She let out a long sigh. "Not once Dad finds out…"

"You say that like he doesn't already know.


	5. Brilliant

A/N: This is tough, you know, redoing episodes. So much reading to do ... so many decisions as to what to omit and what to include. I am hankering to get to the part where this fic becomes my own .. but I can't do that until we've gotten to the end of Utopia ... grrrrrrrrrrr

Still. I'm having some fun re-imagining all this and fixing what I really didn't like ... (snicker)

I do hope beyond all hope that I'm keeping you with me here. The abrupt twists and turns and GASP!WHAT bits and pieces are coming... (And I promise I have some great surprises in store for you all!)

Thanks for all of your comments, as always. They really are inspiring and keep a girl at it!

~~oooOOOooo~~

There was a slight crease in Gallifrey Tyler's little brow as he watched his father be led off by a rambling old man who seemed to have caught himself in a babble-loop of "goodgoodgood". The Doctor might not have seemed particularly bothered about it, neither did Martha, so he wasn't quite sure why _he_ was so taken aback by it. One thing he knew for sure and that was that he didn't much like this old guy.

He stared toward the man with a look through his brows, a fold of his arms across his chest, and the smallest purse in his lips. "Don't trust 'im," he huffed under his breath.

"Why's that. Are you jealous, _little Doctor_ ," Jack whispered teasingly against his ear.

Gallifrey felt the bile rise in his throat, and side-stepped as big a stride as he possibly could away from Jack. He looked along his shoulder and sniffed an indignant breath. "My name's Gallifrey," he corrected. "And no. I'm not jealous. Time Lords don't get _jealous_."

Both Jack and Martha spat out identical laughs and fell against each other in an exaggerated show of amusement to Gallifrey's assertion.

"Oh. No." Jack managed after a panted breath or two as he calmed himself. "The Doctor's _never ever ever_ shown any form of possessiveness or jealousy at all, right Martha?"

"No," she agreed in song. "None what-so-ever."

Gallifrey's indignant expression fell to a lengthened countenance of annoyance. "I never said they don't get possessive, Captain Harkness. I said they don't' get jealous. There's a difference between the two behaviours y'know. But, obviously the differences are too subtle and your inferior intelligence is able to understand and correctly interpret the nuances that separate them."

Jack's jaw fell as Gallifrey let out a humph and then stalked a purposeful stride toward the corridor that the Doctor and the old man had turned into. He noticed that Gallifrey's little hands were balled into fists at his side that pumped tight and loose with every step that he took.

He let out a breath as the youngster disappeared around the corner and tipped his head toward Martha. "Did I just get schooled by a ten year old?" He held up his hand before Martha could respond. "No. Let me amend that question: Did I just get _schooled, paddled, given detention by and then given an_ _F_ by a ten year old?"

Martha licked at her lip and nodded. She offered him a sympathetic look. "He's not Ten, Jack." She gestured toward the cornier with a nod of her chin. "Gal's eight."

Jack slouched and expelled a short sound of utter humiliation and defeat. "Taken to task by an eight year old?!"

Martha's eyes widened and she smirked. "He did warn you that he was clever enough to make you…" she frowned in thought. "Oh, what did he say, again?" Her eyes brightened and her smile stretched wider. "That's right. Call for your momma."

"Ahh. Yes. That's right," Jack said breathily with a nod of his head. "So he did." He slid his hands into his pockets and offered the crook of his arm to Martha. He smiled when she accepted his offer and stepped into his side.

"Of course, you know," he whispered hoarsely. "This means war."

Martha leaned into him with a chuckle. "Just remember whose son he is, Jack."

Jack grinned widely. "That's what's going to make this so much fun."

~~oooOOOooo~~

"This is the gravitissimal accelerator," the old man said excitedly as he presented his equipment to the Doctor. "It's part of the… Oh! Young man, you want to look as well?"

Gallifrey's eyes were wide as he looked at the impressive array of technology. He nodded excitedly as he moved toward the item in question. "Oh yes. Defintiely."

The old man held out his hand to pause Gallifrey in place when the youngster reached out a hand to touch it. "Please. Don't touch. This is developmental technology that is very important work. Not a toy to be played with."

Gallifrey's hands immediately slid into his trouser pockets and he hummed a little sound as he nodded his head. "Look with my eyes, not my hands. I get it. I'm Gallifreypetertylerlungbarrowmas, but you can call me Gallifrey." His hands dipped deeper into his pockets as he fought the urge to touch. He tipped his ear toward his father, who watched his son's fascination with obvious pride. "Dad, take a look at this. It's beautiful work." His eyes shifted to the old man. "A gravitissimal accelerator. I gather it's going to be part of the guidance system for the rocket ship we saw in the silo?"

The old man seemed surprised. "Well yes, son. Yes it is."

Gallifrey peeped excitedly and skipped to another piece of machinery with such speed that he skidded on the sides of his Chucks when he tried to stop in front of it. "Oh, man. Is this the footprint impellor system?"

The old man's jaw dropped. "You know about endtime gravity?"

"I saw a text on it when I was on Gallifrey a few months back." He flicked his hand toward the Doctor. "Mum and Dad were having some of their _private time_ at the time, and so I was bored and got reading. Nothing too detailed, mind. It was just some thesis information that Romanadvoratrelundar had written back in her Academy days." Gallifrey sighed in awe as he looked over the piece. "I do have to say that this is absolutely beautiful." He looked back at the man and held out his hand in greeting. "As I said, m'name's Gallifrey. You are?"

The old man looked toward the Doctor with a look of question in his eyes.

The Doctor had much the same look levered toward his son, but it was less a stunned expression of surprise, and more a look of concern. He'd heard the tone of suspicion in his lad's voice. He slowly looked toward the old man, but quickly opened his expression to a friendly smile. "My son politely sets a rather good point. You have me and my companions at a disadvantage. You seem to know who I am, but we don't know who you are."

The old man let out a slightly flustered laugh and shook his head. "Oh. No. I don't know who you are. I was told that we had a Doctor on site and I was eager to meet you and hoped that you might be able to help me and my assistant out with a slight problem."

The Doctor breathed out through a smile that opened his jaw to a slight gaped. "Ahh. The four letter word I can never resist."

The old man looked confused. "Pardon me?"

"Allow me to introduce my party," the Doctor began earnestly with a smile as Jack and Martha entered the room. He nodded toward them both. "Martha Jones and Captain Jack Harkness. Brilliant and cheeky respectively." He looked back to the old man. "Two of the brightest – and most exhausting – companions to accompany on my travels in my TARDIS."

The old Man blinked and quietly uttered the word "TARDIS" under his breath.

The Doctor continued with his introductions. "That brilliant youngster who has been trying to make himself known to you is my son, Gallifrey. My absolute pride and joy in the entire universe."

Gallifrey snorted a laugh. "Good thing Mum and Aunty TARDIS aren't here to hear you say that, Dad."

"Both of them would agree with me, Flubble," the Doctor replied with a smile. "Your beautiful mother would accept no less."

He shrugged and went back to looking at the machinery on the table. "I guess."

The old man watched father and son with brows high on his forehead. His brows dropped quickly in sympathy. "And the child's mother? Your wife, I take it?"

The Doctor nodded.

"Has she passed?"

The Doctor snapped a look toward him. "What?" He blinked. "Oh. No. No no no no no. Rose is alive. Quite alive. Very much alive, in fact. Alive, and beautiful, and thriving, and probably very mad at me right now and is plotting my demise."

Gallifrey chuckled. "There's no probably about it, Dad," he replied with a look of amusement. "Once she gets wind of all this, you're going to regenerate."

The Doctor breathed out a long breath. "Yeah. You're probably right, Flubble." He shook his head at his son's giggle and looked back to the old man. "And so. Now that my friends and I are all introduced. You are?"

"Oh yes," he replied as he curled both hands around the Doctor's hand and shook it firmly. "Yana. Professor Yana."

"Pleasure," the Doctor said with a wide and genuine grin.

"And this is my assistant Chantho," he continued with a look toward his assistant.

Chantho, a woman with blue features that bore a smooth combination of both reptilian and insect characteristics, politely dipped her head in greeting. "Chan, welcome, tho."

Gallifrey's eyes opened wide and his exhale was one full of awe. He moved quickly from the table in order to properly introduce himself, but was beaten to her by Jack – who had moved the instant that Gallifrey had.

"Captain Jack Harkness," Jack introduced with his patented flirtatious air and grace. There was a glint in his eye as he regarded the woman in front of him.

The Doctor let out a moan. "Jack. Stop it."

Jack stepped back and while he pretended to be shocked and slightly affronted by the Doctor's chiding, he replied with a smile. "Can't I say hello to anyone?"

Chantho smiled shyly. "Chan, I do not protest, tho."

Jack's voice dipped to quiet and husky. "Maybe later, Blue." He gave her a wink. "When Doctor Killjoy over there has gone to bed."

Gallifrey rolled his eyes as me tried to make his approach to introduce himself. He stepped toward the pair and found his nausea building. He paused and looked to Jack with a lift in his brow. Then he stepped backward slightly and held his posture stiff as he felt the nausea subside. He took another step toward him and let out a huff of curiosity as the nausea returned again.

"Interesting," he said to himself as he stepped away from Jack again and felt the unfortunate sensation of nausea dissipate once again.

The Doctor looked toward Gallifrey. "What's interesting?"

Gallifrey shook his head to shake out his curiosity and looked to his father with cleared eyes. "Oh. Nothing. Just. Nothing." He thrust his hands into his trouser pockets and looked over his shoulder toward Jack as he walked back to the Doctor. "Just figuring some stuff out."

"Yes, well. Maybe you can come here beside me and help the good professor here figure something out."

"You mean _Stay here so I can keep an eye on you_ , right?"

The Doctor scruffed his little head, chuckling in that he received the absolute opposite reaction from Gallifrey than when Martha did the same. "You are my clever, precious little boy."

"And _caged_ ," he snarked with a scowl.

The Doctor ignored it to listen to the frustrated remarks of Yana, who was hurriedly complaining that he couldn't get his systems to harmonize correctly. He slid his glasses onto the bridge of his nose and analysed the construction of it with close scrutiny.

"So this all feeds into the rocket, then?"

Yana nodded. "Yeah, except without a stable footprint we'll never achieve escape velocity. Of only we could harmonise the five impact patterns and unify them, well, we might make it." He looked with unshielded desperation toward the Doctor. "What do you think, Doctor? Any ideas?"

The Doctor's eyes widened and he scratched sat his sideburn as he looked to the mass of wires and circuitry in front of them. "Well. Um." He swallowed hard. "Basically. Sort of…" He shrugged and straightened up, sliding his hands into his pockets as he shrugged tightly. "Not a clue."

"Oh. My. God. He doesn't know! Someone buy a lottery ticket," Martha said with a chuckle.

The Doctor pointed a finger to her. His voice was playful when he retorted. "We're time travelers, Martha Jones. Playing the lottery and placing bets is an abuse of those privileges."

Martha looked toward Jack with a glint in her eye. "Doctor _Killjoy_ …?"

Yana ignored the exchange as he snaked his head side to side to maintain the Doctor's attention. "Are you sure? Nothing?"

The Doctor looked at him apologetically. "I'm sorry. I'm not from around these parts. Never seen a system like it."

Yana looked to Gallifrey. "And you, lad. What about you?"

Gallifrey blinked at the question, then spluttered. "Uhm. Oh. No. Sorry."

"But you read of Endtime gravity and impellor systems."

He shook his head. "Oh, yeah. But that's from millions and millions and millions of years ago, and—"

"While my son is becoming very well versed in the theoretics, he isn't yet caught up on the actual mechanics," the Doctor cut in suddenly. "Sorry. I don't know that he can help you, either. Sorry."

Yana slumped dejectedly. "No. No. I'm sorry. It's my fault. I have so much to do and there's been so little help."

The Doctor offered him a friendly smile. "Well. We're here now. We'll offer as much help as we can." His words started to die as he looked across the room to a table, where Jack and Martha had settled themselves. He couldn't help but watch with dawning realization as Jack pulled a canister from his pack that contained a hand.

Martha's expression was equally stunned. "Oh my god," she spluttered. "You've got a hand. A hand in a jar. A hand in a jar in your bag."

"A hand in a jar in your bag – oh my," Jack sang with a chuckle.

"That," he began with shock as he moved toward the table. "That's _my_ hand!"

Jack lifted his gaze to the Doctor and shrugged. "I needed a Doctor detector."

"I'm sure there are less gruesome ways to find me, Jack," the Doctor muttered in a strangled tone. "Than to use my severed hand."

Martha looked at the Doctor with a paled and utterly confused expression, and if she were to judge by the way that Gallifrey had bent forward to look at both of the Doctor's hands with a high brow, they both had the same question on their minds.

"What d'you mean that's your hand?" She made a point of looking to his hands with exaggerated gestures. "You've got both of your hands. I can see them."

"Well," the Doctor sand with a tightening of one side of his face. "Long story. I lost my hand Christmas Day. In a sword fight."

"What?" she remarked with utter disbelief. "And you grew another one?"

He nodded. "Um. Yeah I did. Yeah." He grinned a manic smile as he waggled his fingers at her. Hello."

Yana looked toward Doctor with suspicion and curiosity. "Might I ask what species are you?"

"Gallifreyan," The Doctor answered with a smile.

"Gallifreyean," Yana repeated slowly. His eyes were on the ceiling of his lab as he considered the word. After a moment he looked back to the Doctor. "Can't say that I've ever heard of that species."

The Doctor let out a breath through a gaped mouth. "Ahh. Yes. How about Time Lord?"

Yana shook his head. "No."

"No?" The Doctor curled a brow. "Not the Time Lords?" He paused to watch Yana shake his head again. "Time Lord? The last of them? Legend or anything?" He exhaled. "Not even a myth?"

Gallifrey chuckled at his side. "End of the universe is a bit humbling, isn't it?"

"Blimey," the Doctor breathed in reply.

Chantho gave him a supportive smile. "Chan, it is said that I am the last of my species too, tho."

He gave her a sympathetic smile. "Then I am sorry. Very sorry to hear that."

Yana nodded. "My good friend Chantho is a survivor of the Malmooth. This planet, the one we're currently residing on, it was their planet. Malcassairo." He exhaled. "Our refuge."

The Doctor set his hand on his son's shoulder to seek comfort from his touch. "The city outside," he breathed softly. "Was that yours?"

Chantho nodded slowly. "Chan, the conglomeration died, tho."

The Doctor grinned. "Conglomeration," he cried out with victory. "That's what I said!"

Jack shook his head. "You're supposed to say I'm sorry."

The Doctor's victory fell to embarrassment, and he rubbed his hand at the back of his neck. "Oh yes. Sorry."

Chantho gave him a warm smile that showed she felt no insult at all to his cheer. "Chan, most grateful, tho."

Martha had shielded out pretty much the entire conversation – her focus locked solely on the Doctor's hands. Without pardoning herself, she spluttered out her continued disbelief. "You _grew_ another hand?"

He huffed out a sound of chiding and waggled his fingers at her again. "Hello again. It's fine. Look. Really, it's me." He held out his hand and wiggled his fingers before he snatched her hand in his and shook it.

Martha peppered out a nervous chuckle. "All this time and you're still so full of surprises."

The Doctor clicked his tongue and gave her a cheeky wink. Gallifrey watched and shook his head as he muttered an accusation of flirting. He moved to take position at the table between Martha and Jack but paused as he approached the Captain and felt his stomach begin to turn again. With a crease in his brow he backed off yet again.

Jack watched the approach and retreat with an arched brow. "Can't make up your mind there, Gal? Feeling a little over awed by my manly superiority over little time tots?"

Gallifrey kept his distance but regarded Jack with eyes of challenge. "I'm _overawed_ by something, Captain. Dunno if it's that you've got any superiority to me, though."

Jack grinned a cheeky smile. "No?"

Gallifrey shook his head. "Nope."

Jack jumped a step toward Gallifrey as though to go on attack, and let out a booming laugh as the youngster squeaked in fright and shot like a small rocket toward the Doctor. He curled himself around pinstriped legs and peeked his eyes from underneath his father's blazer.

The Doctor withheld his own yelp of surprise, but looked down at his trembling child with wide eyes. He then schooled his features and looked toward the table. "Jack. Really? He's a child."

"He's a _chicken_ ," Jack teased with a grin as he made clucking sounds, much to the disgust of Gallifrey who maintained his hide, but pointed angry little fingers in his direction.

Jack shook his head and looked to Yana. He tried to shield his smile with a clearing of his throat. "So. Those things outside. The Beastie Boys. What are they?"

"We call them the Futurekind," Yana answered slowly. "Which is a myth in itself, but, uh, it is feared that they are what we will become." He swallowed and looked to the Doctor. "Unless. Unless we reach Utopia."

The Doctor tipped his head to one side as he tried to peel his son from his legs. "And Utopia is?"

Yana's brows pinched in surprise at the question. "Oh, every human knows of Utiopia. Where have _you_ been?"

The Doctor cleared his throat and then swallowed with awkwardness. "Bit of a hermit."

"A hermit with friends?" Yana asked doubtfully. "And a wife and child?"

"Two children," Gallifrey corrected with a grin as he held up two fingers. "Mum's pregnant. I'm getting a sister!"

The Doctor gently lowered his son's hand and shrugged toward Yana. "Hermits united," he continued facetiously. "We meet up every ten years. Swap stories about caves." He cleared his throat again. "It's good fun … for a Hermit." He swallowed thickly and winced just slightly with obvious awkwardness. "So. Um. Utopia?"

Yana let out a breath that saved him from having to roll his eyes, and crooked a finger to invite them to follow him to the computer terminal. He pointed to a navigational image with a blinking red dot at its centre.

"The call came from across the stars over and over again. Come to Utopia." He circled his finger around the point. "Originated from that point."

The Doctor adjusted his glasses and moved closer to the screen. He looked at the image with a slack jaw of concentration and spoke breathily as he tried to make his own assessment. "Where is that?"

"Oh," Yana answered quickly. "it's far beyond the Condensate Wilderness. Out toward the wildlands and dark matter reefs." He smiled toothily. "It's calling us in. The last of the humans. Scattered across the night."

The Doctor pursed his lips. "What do you think is out there?"

Yana shook his head and shrugged. "I don't know. A colony, a city, some sort of haven?" He turned to face the Doctor. "THe Science Foundation created the Utopia Project thousands of years ago to preserve mankind, to find a way of surviving beyond the collapse of reality itself. Now." He inhaled. "Now perhaps they found it." His voice faltered. "Perhaps not. But it's worth a look don't you think?"

The Doctor grinned. Of course it was worth a look! It's _always_ worth a look.

"Oh yes," he breathed with a grin. "Yes of course. The signal keeps modulating, so it's not automatic." He paused to think a moment, not noticing the sudden unfocused calm that came over the professor as he spoke. "Now there's a good sign," he continued with a grin. "Someone's out there. And that's…" He inhaled hard, suddenly drowning out anything else, including his son tugging on his blazer looking for attention.

"Dad?"

"Ooh," the Doctor continued with thrill. "That's a navigation matric, isn't it? So you can fly without the stars to guide you."

"Dad," Gallifrey urged more firmly.

The Doctor dropped his gaze. "Yes, Flubble?"

Gallifrey gestured toward Yana with a sharp flick of his eyes. The Doctor followed his son's look and noticed the glazed and unfocused stare of Yana. He drew Gallifrey behind him and warily moved slightly closer to the old man. "Professor?" He paused a moment. "Professor?"

Yana blinked rapidly and the unfocused glazed expression vanished quickly. He cleared his throat and rather rudely kocked by the Doctor as he passed him. "Right. That's enough talk. There's work to do." He looked pointedly at the Doctor, and then to his companions. "Now if you could leave. Thank you."

The Doctor frowned with concern as Yana turned heel to walk away from them. "You alright?"

"Yes," he snapped sharply with a dismissive flick of his hand. "I'm fine! And Busy!"

"Except that the rocket's not going to fly, is it?" the Doctor said gently. There was no doubt that as it was right now, there was not going to be any flight anywhere any time soon. "The Footprint mechanism thing…"

"Imprellor system," Gallifrey corrected.

The Doctor looked toward Gallifrey. "Pardon me?"

"It's the imprellor system," Gallifrey continued with a shrug. "I mentioned it earlier, but I think you were too distracted to hear…"

"Never too distracted," the Doctor corrected quickly. "Never too distracted for you, Gal. You know that."

Gallifrey shrugged.

The Doctor lifted his eyes to the Professor. "So the Footprint Imprellor System. It's not working, is it?"

"We'll find a way," Yana said firmly.

The Doctor's voice was apologetic. "Except that rocket's not going to fly, is it?" He looked to the door with all the guilt he felt Yana should be carrying. And that lot out there. You haven't told them, have you They still think they're gonna fly."

Yana let outa breath. He didn't nod, nor shake his head. He only let his eyes fall upon the doorway that the Doctor was watching. "Hope is a powerful thing, Doctor. I think it's better not to take that from them, don't you?"

The Doctor waited for Yana's eyes to move back to him. "Quite right too." He paused to let his long coat slide off his shoulders. He passed it to Jack without waiting for Jack to offer to hold it. "And I must say, Professor. I'm sorry, what was your name?"

"Yana."

The Doctor grinned a wide and manic smile. "Yes. That's right. Professor Yana. This new science is well beyond me – and I don't get to say that too often – but all the same, a boost reversal circuit, in any time frame, must be a circuit which reverses the boost." He paused – probably for dramatics – and gave a wink to his grinning child as he pulled his sonic screwdriver from his pocket and passed it to Gallifrey. "So I wonder what would happen if I did this? Setting 5465D, Flubble."

The Doctor picked up the circuit and held it out to Gallifrey. "Go on, Son."

Gallifrey wore an expression of absolute thrill as he pressed down on the little button that activated the sonic screwdriver. He held it to the circuit for a moment with expectant eyes locked on his father's face, and switched it off only when his father gave him a nod. "Turn it on?" he asked breathlessly.

"Oh yes," the Doctor answered with a wink in his eye. He switched the circuit on, and grinned as the power flowed freely across the circuit.

Chantho's eyes lit up. She looked to the Doctor and then to the professor. "Chan, its working, tho."

Yana looked completely stunned. "But how did you do that?"

"Oh. We've been chatting away," the Doctor answered with a grin as he set his hand on Gallifrey's head and flipped his sonic with the other. "I forgot to tell you, I'm brilliant."


	6. Experimentation

A/N: Not much is really recognizable in this chapter ... had to step off the rewriting train for a bit if only to maintain my sanity...

Now. This might seem like shameless, senseless fluff ... and it likely is, you know ... but there is a purpose to everything the Doctor gushes in this chapter.

Yana - and therefore the Master - is seeing just how much affection the Doctor has for his young family - which will come into play a little bit later on ... Jack needed a bit of an explanation, too, and it kinda took out two birds with one stone. Right? (and I just wanted a little fluff ... let's be honest, yeah?)

Thanks again for your comments. Now that I have today's chapter up, I just might have time to reply ... unless I get sucked in to writing as much of the next chapter as I can today...

~~oooOOOooo~~

"All passengers prepare for immediate boarding. I repeat all passengers prepare for immediate boarding! Destination: Utopia."

Jack raised his head to the loud speakers that called out the boarding call overhead. He could hear the pride and thrill in the voice of the general, and in turn could feel as much as hear the excitement of the people crowded in the hallways.

In short time all of them would be transported to their Utopia where they could begin their lives anew and thrive as humankind always have – and always will. God love the human race and its drive to survive against the most impossible odds.

He wanted to laugh. Even with the end of the universe looming over the horizon, the humans were still battling to survive … and were successfully doing just that!

He wanted to join in the festivities around him and indulge in the positive energy surrounding them. Every nerve ending fired with the need to get up and get involved. Every single nerve receptor was focused solely on the fray and the vibe surrounding them all….

…except for one.

He couldn't help but find himself distracted by a scruffy-haired young boy in a crimson Gallifreyan tunic and trouser outfit whose crisp and pristine colour was offset by a pair of white, dirty Converse shoes that were most definitely Earthen in origin. From the very corner of his eye he could see the Doctor's young son jumping in a focused backward and forward dance in a semi-circle pattern that seemed to centre around … well, around him.

Jack let his eyes wander toward Gallifrey and his erratic, but somehow tightly coordinated step pattern. His little steps and jumps were so perfectly choreographed that Jack found himself very quickly able to decipher the deceptively erratic movements to find the pattern the child had created for himself.

Jack folded his arms across his chest and continued to analyse what Gallifrey was up to. He'd take a step forward, pause, pull up his nose and purse his lips with obvious concentration and analysis, then he'd step back beyond the invisible barrier, turn, and to it all with his back to him. He'd perform that routine along a set semi-circle curve, and then take another step inward. At the beginning of a new round, he'd blanche and breathe deep for a moment with his hands in fists at his side. After a moment where he'd seem to calm himself, Gallifrey would then draw his fists to his face, open his hands to press his fingers at his temple, sigh and massage them somewhat, then open his eyes, focus, and start the dance anew along the new boundary line.

Just what was that weird little kid up to?

He stared at Gallifrey with an expression of utter confusion and bafflement with a focus so unmoving that he didn't notice as the Doctor stepped up to his side with a clipboard in his hand and his glasses seated with a slight skew on the bridge of his nose. He actually yelped a little unmanly yip when the Doctor's voice coughed beside him.

"Holy shit, Doc. Wear a bell or something, will you?"

The Doctor's brows arched high over the tops of his lenses and he peered toward Jack with suspicious curiosity. "Everything okay, Jack?"

Jack held dramatically at his heart and made a show of slowing down his breathing. "Damn near gave me a heart attack, you did."

The Doctor rolled his eyes and shook his head as he let his gaze lazily return to the clipboard. "Hardly. Your heart rate barely spiked when I gave you your so-called fright, and it returned to its resting rate well within the acceptable limits…"

"Is everything alright with your boy," Jack questioned sharply, hoping to deter the Doctor from a long-winded analysis of his heart rate that would inevitably include the cocktail of pheromones and chemicals he was no doubt exuding right now.

The Doctor's head shot up and his eyes flicked to his bouncing, dancing child. After a few blinks to clear his eyesight, the Doctor merely tilted his head in question. "How do you mean? He seems to be okay to me."

Jack flicked his hand toward Gallifrey and swept it in the air to follow the child's movements. "Unless this is the Gallifreyan version of the Hokey Pokey, then something must be up."

The Doctor's brows pinched slightly, as did his eyes. "We don't do the Hokey Pokey on Gallifrey," he remarked dryly. "Nor any version of it." His brows released their pinch and rose above his glasses. "And that," he said with a smile and a cough, "is not any Gallifreyan dance I've ever seen."

"Something he learned at school?"

The Doctor tipped his head to one side. "Nooooo," he drolled slowly. "Not unless it's something they do on the parallel Earth that Gal and Rose were stuck on for a while."

Jack resumed his watch on the child. "How long were they there for, Doc?"

The Doctor swallowed hard. "Too long, Jack. Much, much too long." He lowered his head, but kept his eyes on his dancing child and exhaled a long breath. "Jack. I've known my son, since my fourth incarnation. I've watched him grow and thrive, marry and even have children of his own…"

"Life of a Time Traveller in a nutshell."

"But the bits I missed," the Doctor continued quietly. His voice broke hoarsely as he moved on. "The most formative years of that brilliant young boy's life I missed."

Jack turned his head to look at the Doctor. His eyes widened at the open emotion written on the Time Lord's face. "How long were you separated from Rose, Doc?"

A lone tear rolled down the Doctor's cheek. He didn't look toward Jack – opting instead to continue looking at his child - but his eyebrows lifted as though they were trying to force his gaze in that direction. "I lost them when Rose was six-months pregnant with Gal." He inhaled shakily. "I didn't get them back until Gal was eight. Eight years of his life that I missed out on and will never have a chance to revisit."

"Doc…"

He lowered his head with a slow nod. "Rose and Gal. They were trapped in an alternate universe that I can't possibly ever get to." He sniffed and swallowed a lump. "I tried, Jack. I tried to get to them. But the laws of crossing dimensional walls – they're pretty resolute. I couldn't break through without risking destroying both universes." He looked up again to his dancing child. "There were days that I was prepared to do it, you know. To collapse both universes. The pain was _that_ great." He inhaled and held his breath a moment. "But I couldn't. I just couldn't. And I missed… I missed so much."

"Doc," Jack breathed empathetically. "I'm sorry."

"Yeah," he said with a nod as he closed his eyes over his tears.

Jack put his hand on the Doctor's shoulder. "How long was it for you?"

"Well," he began with his customary drawl that indicated his answer was going to be anything but simple. "That's a complicated answer."

"With you I think I expect it to be," Jack said with a smirk. He took his eyes from Gallifrey and lifted them to the clock on the wall. "Got a short-form version of your answer? I'm not quite sure how long we have to twiddle our thumbs here."

The Doctor rubbed at the back of his neck. "Short version. The Battle at Canary Wharf was when I lost them. That's been nearly three years for me." He blinked. "We were reunited just over three months ago." He blew out a breath through pursed lips. "By my fourth incarnation – who promptly fell in love with the both of them."

Jack slid his eyes to the Doctor, but he didn't comment.

"I married her," the Doctor continued softly, "when I was my Fourth self. And then I spent two and a half centuries bouncing in and out of their timelines having to say good bye over." He inhaled a shaking breath. "And over. And over again."

Jack frowned as he considered that. "But you met Rose in your Ninth incarnation, right?"

The Doctor nodded. "That's correct."

"And she wasn't married to you in her timeline until just recently?"

"Correct again."

Jack rubbed at his brow. "But in your timeline you were already married to her."

"Fully telepathically bonded to her, yes." He began to grin at the expression of utter bafflement on Jack's face. "Like I told you. It's rather complicated."

Jack blustered out a breath and shook his head. "Well. That explains your unreasonable jealousy and possessiveness where Rose has always been concerned. No wonder you disliked Mickey so much."

The Doctor cleared his throat with obvious discomfort.

But Jack wasn't quite done. "I mean. Damn. How hard must it have been for you to just grit your teeth and watch her with him." He coughed out a laugh. "What about Cardiff? God, Doctor. She almost took up with him for a rendezvous in a hotel room, and you …I saw you watching them together on the surveillance feed like you wanted to tear Mickey limb from limb. You're her husband, but you couldn't tell her … You were completely powerless to stop it."

The Doctor's eyes hardened and he blinked slowly. "I wouldn't say that…"

Jack's brow arched in challenge. "Well…"

"Just so you know." The Doctor pulled himself to a stand and slid his hands into his pockets. His voice was low and his expression was hard. "I could've stopped the energy transfer from the TARDIS at any time."

Jack's head snapped quickly toward the Doctor. His expression was one of utter shock. "Are you telling me that you risked destroying the planet just to stop Rose and Mickey from hooking up?"

The Doctor's returning expression was dark and thunderous, and much more suited to the man who almost destroyed the planet that day. "She's my _wife_ ," he growled. "Mine. Not _his._ "

Yana's voice piped up from behind both men. "That's … quite the love story, Doctor."

All of his thunder and aggression dissolved immediately. The Doctor gave a wide grin. "Love stories often are. Quite, that is. As in quite _good_ stories. Brilliant. Heartbreaking. Happy…" He swallowed around an uncomfortable lump. "So where are we with the rocket, then? All ready to fly your passengers to Utopia?"

Yana gave a nod. "They're being boarded onto the rocket craft as we speak." He dipped his ear down to one side. "There is still much to be done before we can be fully ready for flight. I'm just waiting on the return of the troops."

"Have you heard from them regarding my ship? Did they find her?"

Yana shook his head. "I haven't heard anything regarding your missing box, Doctor. I will imagine it'll be found soon enough – although I can't guarantee you that it'll be in one piece." He then frowned. "I thought you said that they were looking for nothing more than a blue box. But you're calling it a _ship_?"

The Doctor scratched at his sideburn and forced his voice from his throat. "Yeah. I am calling it that, aren't I?"

"You are."

He straightened up. "Still. Box or ship. It's mine and I need it back." He looked toward his still-dancing child. "Okay, Flubble. Enough play. We have some work to do and I'd prefer that you were at my side when we did it."

"Can't right now," Gallifrey replied inside panted breaths as he took a step closer to Jack and fought to stay calm as nausea rolled over him. His voice was strangled when he spoke again. "Experimenting. Gimme a mo."

The Doctor looked at his son with a pinched expression of bafflement on his face. "Experimenting?" he chuffed incredulously. "Experimenting with _what_?"

Gallifrey moved through the motions of rubbing at his temples and trying to control his breathing. "Time sense," he panted out hoarsely. "For some reason it's gone all wibbly wobbly on me and I'm gettin' sick." His eyes flashed open and he leapt a step along his new boundary line. He pointed sharply at Jack. "And it's his fault."

Jack was positively affronted by that. "Why are the two of you accusing me of being some kind of allergen to time-tot/human hybrids?"

The Doctor ignored the question. Instead he focused on his child, and his self-driven desire to solve his quandary. He watched as Gallifrey moved through his little routine and couldn't fight the beaming grin of pride that stretched ear to ear.

"You're forcing a suppression in the time sense receptors…"

"By isolating the writhing wavelength signal that's triggering the alarm response against my senses," Gallifrey finished on a forced breath. "And there's more than one that's tapping against them, so it's a bit of an effort." He took another stride forward and found himself only a foot away from Jack. He took a few very controlled breaths and then lifted his fingers to his temples. "But I'm breaking through, Dad. Just give me a few more minutes to stabilize my …."

"You. Are. Brilliant!" The Doctor hollered with thrill before Gallifrey could finish with his explanation. He launched forward to haul his little boy up against his chest. "You never cease to amaze me, Gal. My brilliant, clever, precious boy."

Gallifrey let out a belch at the impact of the Doctor against his chest. He then let out a yip to find himself suddenly off the floor and inside his father's arms, but he didn't struggle or protest. He grinned a manic little grin of his own against the Doctor's ear. "Does. Does this mean you're proud of me, Dad?"

The Doctor kept Gallifrey off the ground, but pulled back enough to beam a grin into the child's face. "Proud of you, Flubble? Of course I'm proud of you! You are brilliant, utterly, utterly _brilliant_!" He hummed a happy sound as he lowered Gallifrey back to the ground. "But of course you're brilliant. You are – after all – _my_ son. Of course you were going to turn out to be amazing!"

Gallifrey was plainly thrilled by that. His grin was a tight row of clenched teeth and his eyes wide and excited. He couldn't speak to respond, but he made the most adorable sound of happy in the very back of his throat.

"Of course," the Doctor murmured after he'd tamped down his thrill. "There is a much easier way for you to have done that."

Gallifrey's expression fell. "Really?"

"That doesn't diminish your accomplishments, though, Flubble," the Doctor assured him quickly. "The fact that you took it upon yourself to experiment and push your own boundaries to suppress a rather insistent temporal telepathic feedback sensation phenomenon is brilliant." He set his hand on Gallifrey's shoulder. "To succeed in being able to isolate the wavelength signal that was interfering with your temporal senses and then suppress it without affecting the effectiveness of your time sense, well. That's about a suitcase more brilliance." He looked to Jack to give him the grin and misty eyes of a father that was beyond proud of his child. "I'm adding in the entire cargo hold of brilliance for the fact that you, my precious boy, are still an untrained telepath." He looked back to Gallifrey. "With training, you will be one of the most brilliant Prydonian Telepathic Masters that Gallifrey has ever seen."

Gallifrey's eyes were wide. "You think so?"

"Well," the Doctor sang with a wink in his eye. "Aside from me, of course." He laughed when Gallifrey slumped and let out an exaggerated moan. "Come here, Flubble. Let me help you out with your issue, and hopefully it won't bother you again."

Gallifrey gave an eager nod. "Okay. Uhm. Contact?"

"Yes, son. Contact."

Both father and son closed their eyes and inhaled perfectly synchronized breaths. Before either could let out the breath, they opened their eyes.

"It's _that_ simple?" Gallifrey asked incredulously. "I've been on it for an hour and a half now, and you solve it in 1.54 seconds?" He snapped his fingers. "Just like that."

The Doctor grinned. "Just like that." He put his hand atop Gallifrey's head. "While I'm beyond proud that you wanted to solve this on your own, Flubble. Next time, just ask. I'm your dad; it's my job to help you out. Yeah?"

"Yeah," he answered with a sigh. "Okay."

The Doctor clapped his hands and looked around. "Right. Now that we have that all sorted out. We've actually got work to do, haven't we?"

The Doctor paused to wait for Yana to respond in the affirmative, and was surprised to see the old man once again caught off in his own thoughts. He couldn't help but note the way that the professor silently mouth short parts of his discussion with Gallifrey as though in a trance.

"Hello," he called with a snap of his fingers in front of Yana's nose. "Time to come back to Malcassairo, Professor. You've got people to send to Utopia!"

Yana blinked rapidly and seemed to shake himself of his thoughts. "Yes. Indeed. My apology." He pointed toward a large circuit board on a table in the middle of the lab. "Now that you've finished assuring your precious child of the pride and love you have for him, let's take a look at my neutralino map."


	7. missing

A/N: Two chapters in one day ... this doesn't happen often.

Meh, got in the swing of it, couldn't stop ... although I had to ... multiple times in fact. But it's done.

I hope you enjoy this additional little tiny chapter ... Now that we have the Doctor's girls in the picture, stuff can happen ... Whoot whoot!

~~oooOOOooo~~

The Doctor had to admit: The circuit board and its purpose were pretty damn impressive. In fact as he looked around he couldn't help but take in the impressiveness of the entire set up that Professor Yana had created. This man had no real assistance and very few supplies to aid him in his research, yet he'd been able to put together an absolute marvel of technology.

His expression held awe in the man as he lifted a cord to his nose and inhaled deeply. He held it down to Gallifrey to allow the youngster to take a sniff for himself.

"Is this…?"

"Yes," Yana replied as if anticipating the question. "Gluten extract. It binds the neutralino map together."

"But that's food," the Doctor remarked with a tightness in his expression. "You've built this system out of food and string and staples." He shook his head in disbelief. "Professor Yana, you're a genius!"

Yana grinned a smile of self-pride and then amusement as he watched the Doctor snatch the cable away from Gallifrey, who had taken it upon himself to lick it. "Says the man who made it work."

"Oh," the Doctor sang with a husky voice. "It's easy when you come in at the end. But. Well. But you're stellar. This is…" He inhaled a breath of awe. "This is magnificent."

Gallifrey chuckled. "Coming from you, that's saying something, Dad. What with you being all clever and brilliant."

Jack let up a laugh. "Oh the kid's got your number, Doc."

The Doctor merely grinned.

"Well," Yana began ruefully. "Even my title is an affectation. There hasn't been such a thing as a university for over a thousand years. I've spent my life going from one refuge ship to another."

"I know that feeling," Gallifrey remarked with a huff. "'Cept me and mum went from one refuge house to another." He heard his father peep sadly at that and quickly curled around his side. He looked up at him with an adoring grin. "But we're home now, yeah. No more running."

The Doctor swallowed hard enough that it locked his jaw and dimpled his cheek. In short time, he shook off the regret and looked back to the professor. "If you'd been born in a different time, you'd be revered." His expression lengthened to surprise when Yana chuckled. "I mean it. Throughout the galaxies."

Yana huffed. "Oh, those damned galaxies. They had to go and collapse." He smiled a weary smile toward the Doctor, who was wordlessly showing his son the circuit layout. "Some admiration would have been nice. Just once. Just a little."

The Doctor winked at his son and then looked up at Yana with a warm smile. "Well you've got it now." His brow twitched lightly. "But that footprint thing."

"Imprellor, Dad."

"Quite right, Flubble," he said with a smile. "The Footprint Imprellor. You can't activate this from onboard, can you? It's got to be done from here." He swallowed thickly. "You're staying behind."

Yana nodded, his expression suddenly unreadable. "With Chantho." He shifted his eyes toward his assistant. "She won't leave without me. Simply refuses."

The Doctor looked to Chantho with soft eyes, and then switched his look back to Yana. "You would give your life so they could fly."

"You say that like you wouldn't do the same," Yana said with a touch of a smile. His eyes fell to Gallifrey, who was now up on his toes to closely scrutinize the circuitboard. "for him. For your wife." He looked up. "It wouldn't even be a question, would it?"

The Doctor shook his head.

"Would be if me and mum have anything to say about it," Gallifrey muttered without looking up. He kept his focus on the circuit board, but managed to poke his father in the chest. "So don't even think about it. 'Kay?"

Yana chuckled lightly. "I think I might be a little too old for Utopia," he admitted. "Time that I had some sleep."

There was a crackle over the communications line. "Professor. Could you tell the Doctor that we haven't been able to find his blue box."

The Doctor's eyes widened. "Hold on, what?"

"We were able to pinpoint the original location of the box," the voice continued. "There was a deep imprint in the ground from where we believe the box to have been, but it's been taken away."

The Doctor shook his head. "No. That's impossible." He leaned down to the mic. "Look again. Please. You can't give up."

"I'm sorry, Doctor," the voice answered somewhat solemnly. "There isn't much we can do. If the Futurekind have it, then I doubt you're going to get it back in one piece even if you did find it."

"You don't understand," he warned on a low and dark tone of voice. "I have to get that box back." He panted lightly. "I need it back!"

"Then I'm sorry, Doctor. You'll have to continue looking for it on your own. It's far too dangerous for any of us to stay out here any longer." The voice seemed to shift. "Professor. We're on our way back."

"No!" the Doctor yelled as his fists came down hard on the table. "You can't give up. Another half hour. Please. I'm begging you."

"I'm sorry, Doctor."

The doctor inhaled sharply and brought both hands to his head to clutch painfully at his hair. "No," he moaned to himself. "This isn't happening. This _can't_ be happening."

Gallifrey tugged on the bottom of his blazer. "Dad. What about Mum?"

Jack stepped forward to take hold of Gallifrey's shoulder. "Now that I'm not making you projective vomit all over the place, why don't you hang out with me for a bit. Let your dad think it over."

Gallifrey looked first to Jack, and then to the Doctor. "Dad?" His voice was meek, and full of terror. "Dad please tell me we're gonna find mum."

The Doctor released his hold on his hair and looked down to his child. He managed to project as much confidence as he could as he lowered himself to a crouch and looked up into his son's face. "Flubble. I promise you I'm going to do everything I can to find her, okay?" He swallowed hard. "But right now, can you please go with Jack and Martha, and let me run through a few options?"

"I can help," he whimpered. "Dad, please?"

"Gallifrey," the Doctor whined back with as much apology as there was order. "I need you to just…"

"Don't shut me out," Gallifrey growled.

"What?"

"I said don't shut me out," he repeated with a curl in his lip. "Cause if you're thinkin' of leavin' me here and going out there by yourself, it ain't happening. You got it?" He jabbed his thumb into his chest and rose to his full height. "That's my mum and sister out there. Remember that." He folded his arms across his chest. A shimmer of gold passed by his eyes. "I'm Mum's protector. Always have been an' always will be."

The Doctor snatched him into a tight embrace. "I'm so sorry that you think you have to be, Gal. But not anymore. That's my job now. You, your Mum, and little Tia." He smoothed his hands over his son's hair. "We'll get them back in one piece. I promise."

"Tia?"

The Doctor smiled. "Tialistrelemlungbarrowmas. It means warm sunlight. What do you think? You like it?"

"Love it, Dad." Gallifrey's eyes watered and he sniffed wetly. " They're gonna be okay, yeah?"

"Of course they are," the Doctor assured him. "With you and me heading out after them? You betcha."

Jack adjusted the waistband of his pants and joined the pair. "I'm in, and I'll bet Martha's gritty enough to insist on joining us as well. So get your head together and think of what we need out there."

A soft wind started to kick up inside the laboratory, which made the Doctor reach out to take hold of his child once again. He exhaled a breath of disbelief as the cry of time called out to invite the whine and wheeze metallic keening of a time ship's engines to join in the song.

"It can't be," the Doctor whispered to himself.

Gallifrey struggled from his hold. "Dad! That's the TARDIS!" he shoved himself free of the Doctor and jogged into an open space. His eyes were alight and his smile bright as he swiped the tear tracks from his face. "Come on, auntie TARDIS! Come to your little Timelord!"

Yana's eyes shot wide as he palmed down some papers on his desk and looked with fear around the room. "What is happening, Doctor?" He looked toward the end of the room, where a blue shape was fading in and out of reality. "What is that?!"

The Doctor drew himself to his full height. He brushed off his thighs and looked with a wide grin toward the slowly materializing TARDIS.

"That, Professor, is my ship." He thrust his hands into his pockets and rocked back slightly on his heels. The TARDIS groaned and wheezed her way into existence with her lights brilliantly blinding everyone who looked at her. "My beautiful ship. The TARDIS."

Yana's focus faltered into a trance once more as he slowly repeated the word.

The front door of the Time Ship burst open the second that the TARDIS had fully materialized. Rose Tyler stumbled out with absolutely no grace or coordination. She quickly closed the door behind her and spun to check the condition of The TARDIS' wooden exterior.

"Oh, sweetheart," she cooed apologetically as she ran her hand over a particularly nasty pair of long indents that spanned across both doors. "What'd they do to you? Are you okay? Does it hurt?"

"Mum!"

Rose barely had time to register her son's voice calling out to her before he was upon her. She was fast enough to open her arms for him and to ground herself to stop the both of them from collapsing to the ground.

"Hey little man," she cooed softly when she noticed he was crying against her belly. "What's gotten into you then?"

"Rose."

It was the Doctor's voice. Thankful and relieved. She lifted her head to him in question.

"What happened to him, Doctor?"

He didn't answer her. Instead, the Doctor glided across the floor toward her and snaked his arms around her to sandwich little Gallifrey between them both. He ignored the presence of all others and lowered his mouth to hers in a fierce kiss that very quickly curled her toes.

"Dad," Gallifrey moaned with disgust from in between them. "Eww. Really?"

The Doctor merely dipped his head lower to kiss his wife a little deeper.

"Therapy, Dad. I'm gonna need it if you keep that up while I'm here…" He wriggled to free himself. "Eww. And more eww." He pulled himself free and made a dramatic show of shuddering and gagging. He looked up to Jack, who was leaned up against a wall with a grin on his face. "That is something I'm _never_ gonna engage in. Just putting that out there."

Jack scruffed at his head. "Don't knock it till you've tried it, kid."

"You know where cooties come from, yeah?"

Jack let out a laugh and curled his arm across Gallifrey's shoulder. "Oh. That's a list that's long and varied."

Rose finally found release from the Doctor's mouth, but not without having to strike the back of her head against the TARDIS doors. She winced just slightly, but touched her forehead to the Doctor's chin when his arms curled protectively around her back.

"Now _that's_ a greeting," she said with a light pant. "Is everything okay?"

"We thought we'd lost you," he admitted on a graveled voice. "They couldn't find the TARDIS, and we thought the Futurekind had gotten to you."

"Futurekind?" she queried with distaste. "You mean the monsters that attacked the old girl?" She looked up into his face. "I have to admit, I thought they'd gotten you and Gal."

He kept his eyes on hers and shook his head. "No. We all made it here before anyone could get their hands on anyone."

"Am I going to have to yell at you for getting our son into trouble?"

He chuckled and pulled her tighter against him. "I think you'll find that most of the time it's going to be him getting the two of us into trouble."

Rose could feel the tension inside the Doctor. She could also feel it quickly subsiding. "I'm okay, Doctor. TARDIS protected me." She touched his face and lifted her brows, speaking to him as though he was a frightened child. "I tried every trick in the book for her to let me go out and look for you, but she refused."

"She's a good girl," he whispered softly.

"I didn't think so at the time."

He inhaled hard enough through his nose to draw up his lip into a curl and finally released her. "So how did you end up here?" he asked, all business.

Rose shrugged. "I don't know. I figure it was one of your security protocols going into effect."

He dropped a frown toward her. "I don't have any protocols in place that would send her to me like this, Rose." He looked at the door. "Certainly none that would activate without me giving the order."

"Pre-existing flight plan, maybe?"

He shook his head. "I'll take a look at her a little later."

"Sounds like a plan," Rose said with a bright smile and a scratch at her belly. "So? What's on the plate here, then? Anything I can help with?"

Yana called across the room with obvious frustration in his voice.

"Would you care to tell me just what we have here, Doctor?"

The Doctor spun on his heel and hooked his arm across Rose's back. "Professor. Yes. Sorry." He let a grin spread across his cheeks. "Allow me to introduce you to the love of every one of my lives." He dipped his cheek down toward the top of her head. "Rose. This is Professor Yana. Professor, this is my wife, Rose Tyler."

Rose wriggled her fingers in greeting. "Hello."

Yana gave her a brief smile of greeting. "Yes. I assumed she was your wife based on your rather inappropriate display against the Box." His eyes flicked toward the TARDIS. "Now. Can you explain to me what that is?"

The Doctor lifted his brows and looked toward his ship. With a smile slowly spreading across his cheeks, he looked back toward the old man. "Professor. This might be a wild stab in the dark, but I believe that my blue box might just be your way out."

He suddenly released Rose from his hold and threw open the doors of his beloved ship. He quickly jogged inside. "This is the TARDIS, and she's clever. So very clever." He called out from the inside. "The best space and time ship in the entire universe." He popped his head out of the doors and gripped at the doorframe with both hands as he grinned a manic grin. "And she's going to make sure that you _all_ make it to Utopia. All of you. Every last one of you! Isn't that fantastic?" He pulled back up from the doorway and went back inside. "Of course it's fantastic. It's brilliant. Wonderful. Molto Bene!"

Yana didn't respond. His eyes were once again glazed and his mind in a trance as he slowly mouthed the word TARDIS over and over again.

His trance broke only when he heard the shocked cry of disbelief from Rose Tyler.

"Jack?!"


	8. Jealousy

A/N: I imagine that this chapter won't be all that well received .. and it's inappropriate for the location, I will admit. Buuuuut ... I wanted to write it.

Call me Moffat. I do what I want and I don't care ... (actually don't call me that, cause I don't like him - At. All).

I really just wanted to shove forward more about the importance of the bond toward the man who will end up trying to do all he can to end it. I also can't see Jack really taking his abandonment as nonchalantly as he did in the show ... and I can see him digging here and there rather than just going nuclear all at once.

This is a very short one ... I only had, like, an hour today to write ... so this is all I could do in that time.

If anyone is still with me at this point in the fic. Thanks for sticking with me ... I promise you it will be worth it as soon as I get to where I want, which, judging by the transcript (that I have been hacking apart and tossing over my shoulder since chapter one), we should be there - or at the juncture of some really decent angst against our beloved Time Lord - by the end of next chapter.

ABOUT BLOODY TIME!

Although. Yes. I get it. If I hadn't strayed for three chapters with my own dribble, then we'd already be there, would't we? And we'd have other Doctors and kids and even a cousin to play with. right? right!?

Oh ... let's just get to it, shall we...

~~oooOOOooo~~

The moment that Jack's name left her lips, Rose felt the Doctor tense. Although he was tens of feet away from her, and deep inside the TARDIS console room, she could feel him stiffen across their telepathic link. His tension gave her pause, and Rose found herself unable to launch across the space between them to engulf the Captain in the fierce hug that her arms were itching to pull him into.

All she found herself capable of doing was to delicately lift her hands to her mouth and suck in a deep breath. "My God," she breathed against her fingers. "Jack…"

Jack definitely sensed her hesitation to come to him and so offered her a warm and somewhat flirtatious smile as he pulled his arm off Gallifrey's shoulder.

"Rosie," he said huskily as he cautiously approached her and let his eyes rake up and down her trembling body. "You look amazing."

Rose's eyes were locked on his, which lifted her head as he approached her. "Th-this old thing," she stammered lightly as she let her hands shift from her mouth and onto her chest. She inhaled sharply at the rise and fall in his chest underneath her fingertips. Emotion was heavy in her voice. "I'm in my jim-jams."

His eyes lifted to her hair. He smiled a longing expression as he smoothed his hand over the fly-away strands of hair that had escaped her hastily fastened bun while she'd napped. "The _I've just been shagged_ look never looked so good on anyone," he whispered quietly, his gentle tone of voice completely betraying the suggestion he was trying to convey in his words. He captured a tear on her cheek with his thumb and let his eyes settle on hers. His voice was barely audible when he spoke next. "God, Rose. I've missed you."

"I-I thought you were dead," she blustered out before drawing in a sudden breath and holding it behind lips she held with her teeth.

He shook his head gently. "You are worth dying for," he said softly. "But much more valuable as someone to _live_ for."

Her breath flew out of her at that moment with such force that she coughed out a sound much like a sob. She quickly jumped up to throw her arms around his neck.

His arms snapped around her waist to catch her as she fell, and Jack crushed Rose's quivering form up tight to his chest. He hummed a sound of happiness against her ear as she sobbed out his name and her relief at him being alive. He rocked them both in place, swaying her legs left and right, which gave him a moving view of the Doctor's appearance at the TARDIS doors…

…and the dark look of jealousy that was set in his handsome, lightly freckled face.

Whether he did it because it was something he was eager to do – and had wanted to do since the day he met her - or because he wanted to levitate the rising jealousy that he could feel emanating hotly from the Time Lord scowling from his TARDIS, Jack would never clarify to anyone. But he suddenly stopped swaying the woman in his arms. His arms locked yet tighter around her waist. And his mouth found hers. She peeped with surprise, and he knew that her eyes were wide with shock, but he maintained the press of his mouth against hers and slid a hand into her hair to pull her head firmly toward his. He used her gasp of surprise to claim her with a kiss deeper than what would've been appropriate even if he was her boyfriend.

Jack caught three very distinct sounds from three very precise points in the room. One, a horrified child's gasp from the wall behind him. Two, a whimper and cry of pain from Rose. Three, a thunderous growl from the Doctor at his TARDIS.

Jack didn't have the chance to consider releasing Rose before he found himself forcibly torn from her by an irate Time Lord. He was thrown back toward the table in the centre of the lab and collided heavily against it, stumbling to find his balance under the protestation of a bruised hip.

"Well that's a bit of an under-reaction don't you think?" he ground out in reply when the Doctor didn't continue to come at him. Honestly, he had hoped for something a little more hostile from the Doctor than a simple push and shove. He still had residual aggression he wanted to expend upon the Doctor for abandoning him like he did so …. So … long ago.

Thinking that now might be a good time to try and hash it out now that Rose Tyler was here to mediate and referee, Jack looked across to the Doctor with the full intent to goad him into a long-overdue argument about it, but found pause at the sight of the two of them together.

Rose was obviously weak in the knees and looked up into her husband's face with an expression that was a mix of confusion, question, hurt and apology. Her brow was pinched tight together, and her eyes wide and almost child-like in how they questioned the Doctor.

The Doctor held Rose firmly in a firm grasp that looked almost tentative in how loose it was. He looked down into her face with his own look of apology and concern. He spoke quietly to her and waited until she nodded her understanding. He then looked up to Jack with a furious glare.

"I warned you back when we first met that Rose was off limits."

Jack rolled his eyes and shook his head. "It was _just_ a kiss, Doctor. No need to get your tie all up in a twist."

"We're telepathically bonded," he warned on a low voice. "Permanently joined in the ways of my people. What you call _just a kiss_ is actually something that is extremely, physically painful to her."

Jack's eyes blew open wide. He quickly looked to Rose with apology. "What?"

"Time Lords aren't indiscriminate sexual deviants who will lay down with just anyone," the Doctor lectured darkly. "We mate for life. Well. For several lives, actually." He let Rose gently pull away from him and looked to her for assurance that she was okay before looking back to Jack. "Infidelity means death to the cheating Lord, and then a slow torturous existence to their partner because of the severed bond." He swallowed thickly. "A kiss, even one that isn't reciprocated is going to cause either one of us incredible pain."

He shot a look toward Rose and slumped regretfully. "Rosie…"

"There is no such thing as _just a kiss_ with a bonded Time Lord, Jack."

Yana's voice chanted in a somewhat detached voice. "With timelines bound in Rassilon's holy sacrament, two will become one, and that one will live in the souls of two. Never stray and never falter. Honour the bond that you both have pledged under these twin suns and do vow that only on Deathday shall you part."

The Doctor snapped his attention toward Yana with alarm in his eyes. "What did you just say?"

Yana blinked rapidly and let his brows come together in the middle of his forehead. "I – I'm really not sure, Doctor."

The Doctor strode toward Yana with fast and purposeful movements. His head angled slightly in one direction as he walked as though wanting to keep a cautious side-glance at the man. "You just spoke the words of a High Gallifreyan bonding commitment ceremony." His look briefly switched to a rather juvenile wide eyed expression. "Well. The English translation of it anyway. A translation that really doesn't give the actual vows the full glorious justice it deserves. It really doesn't translate well into other languages, Gallifreyan." His hands found their place inside his trouser pockets and he walked around Yana with a relaxed gait and countenance.

…To Gallifrey, Rose, Martha and Jack, however, it was clear that the Doctor was firmly on guard.

"So how do you know it?" the Doctor queried casually.

Yana shook his head. "I really can't say, Doctor. Perhaps it's something I read in one of the many texts I've encountered in my travels. Like I said to you, I've been on many, many refuge ships. It's likely that I met someone familiar with the vows, or perhaps I was witness to a couple from your planet pledging those vows."

The Doctor pressed his lips together and hummed with a light bounce in his head. "Yeah. I can't see that being a possibility."

"You'd be surprised about what's out there, Doctor," Yana defended with mild condescension. "And more importantly _who_ is out there."

"Oh," the Doctor breathed out somewhat hoarsely. "Not really." He thumbed to the door. "There's not much left out there to surprise me." He dipped his head toward his shrugging shoulder. "At least not where my people are concerned anyway. Not too many of them left. Well. There's one." He sniffed and looked to his son. "Two." He then looked to Rose and her midsection. "Two and a half." He then inhaled deeply through an open mouth. "Been that way for, oh, trillions of years in your timeline."

"You mentioned that you were a Time Traveller, Doctor," Yana commented with a rub at his head. "I expect that you're not the only one of your people who toyed with time travel."

"No," the Doctor admitted with a grimace tightening up one side of his face. "No. You're right about that. We were called _Time Lords_ for a reason."

Yana winced at the name and rubbed at his temples. "Then it isn't unreasonable to expect that one or two of them might've ended up somewhere along my time line."

"Destination wedding," Jack said with a chuckle from the behind them.

"Wrong species to be considering something like that," the Doctor answered indignantly. "That's a human-y twist on ceremonial customs." He snorted. "My people weren't exactly renegades against the time honoured ceremonial clap trap set down by council."

"And just where did you take your vows, Doc?" Jack said with a smirk.

"On the banks of the Cadonflood River under Mount Lung near my family home on Gallifrey." He answered with affront. "And if I refuse to part from tradition…"

"Point well given," Jack said with a sigh. He looked to Martha and Gallifrey, who were silently chuckling. "And driven straight through my spleen. It's a good thing I can't die."

They looked at him in surprise. Athough they asked the question at the same time, it was Martha's voice that overrode young Gallifrey's. "You can't what?"

The communications line crackled over their heads, making the Doctor's head snap upward so that he could look to the speaker in the ceiling that only served to provide feedback from the monitor at the side of the room. "What's going on now?"

"Professor. The Systems are down. Professor, are you getting me?"

Yana moved to the communications panel and half scowled into the camera. "Yes. I'm here. We're ready. Now all you need to do is connect the couplings, then we can launch."

The image of the officer flickered off screen.

Yana grunted in annoyance. "God sakes. This equipment! It needs rebooting all the time!" He leaned forward and rubbed at his temples again, letting out a long moan that drew the Doctor's attention.

"Professor," he called curiously. "Are you okay?"

Yana nodded and set his hands on the table. "Just a headache, Doctor. Just noise inside my head."

The Doctor snaked his head in front of Yana's face to look into his eyes in analysis. 'Noise?"

Yana let out a breath and gave a dismissive wave. "It's nothing of note, Doctor. It's a sound I've had in my head for as long as I can remember. A constant noise."

"What kind of noise?"

He looked to the Doctor. "It's the sound of drums. Pounding more and more as though it's getting closer."

The Doctor frowned. "When did this start?"

Yana laughed ruefully. "Oh, I've had it all my life. Every waking hour." He exhaled hard. "Still. No rest or the wicked. Still have plenty to do, you know. No sense in continuing to engage in the madness that seems to surround you, Doctor."

"Oh," he said with a grin. "Madness is my middle name." His grin fell. "Well. Not really. I don't exactly have a middle name, nor a last one actually. My name's more of a multi-syllable combination of Gallifreyan descriptives that ended up not really describing anything about me at all. But what it does do is make it about _this_ long." He held his arms out either side of him for effect.

Yana looked at him wearily. "Then perhaps one day you'll sing to me this impossibly long and descriptive name of yours."

"Funny that you say _sing_ ," he said breathily as he scratched his sideburn. "High Gallifreyan is rather musical."

The Doctor suddenly drew in a sharp breath and straightened himself. He clapped his hands and then rubbed them together. "So. Connecting the couplings and rebooting your system. Tell me where to begin, Professor. I'll see to it that everything is in line, hooked up and ready to send you and your people to Utopia."


	9. Fob Watch

A/N: Hi!

This marks the second to last chapter where I have to refer to a transcript to work my way through it... Thank every deity for that!

This has been a tough slog to this point because I am not able to be as wholly creative as I want to be. I had to try to take care enough to keep it close to how it was supposed to be. BUT NOT ANYMORE!

This is where I dump off canon, say to hell with it all, and get that delicious timey wimey stuff going! I'm actually excited by that...

I certainly hope you're still on the ride with me here. :)

~~oooOOOooo~~

Rose Tyler kept her eyes on the Doctor, and her thumbnail firmly between her teeth as she stepped out of everyone's way to stand against the wall in between the TARDIS and the door. She'd obviously missed the most important and informative parts of the day's adventure due to napping in the TARDIS, and felt that it wouldn't be appreciated if she decided to pepper a thousand questions toward any member of the party in an attempt to catch up. No. Best that she stand quietly and merely keep an eye on things for now.

The Doctor was pacing to and fro with his usual manic energy. His mouth was unstoppably sounding out an impossible amount of technical jargon that seemed to be understood only by the Professor and the youngster that was swarming around the Doctor like a cat waiting to be fed. Gallifrey was in sponge-mode; Rose could see that clearly. His eyes were wide, his jaw lightly gaped, and his focus was locked tight on his father. Once or twice he flicked a look toward Yana, but it was rather quickly determined that the old professor had very little patience for the curiosity of youth.

"Gal," Rose called gently. "How about you come stand by me. Let your dad and the professor work through things without you buzzing around them."

The Doctor twisted his head to look in her direction and offered her a smile. "He's okay with me, Rose." He looked down to his son and gave the lad a wink. He petted his head. "Best way to learn is by watching the geniuses in action … am I right?"

"There'd have to be one around for that to happen, Doctor."

He grinned even as he feigned hurt at that comment. "Rose Tyler. You wound me when you say things like that." He curled his arm around Gallifrey's head and playfully jostled the young lad back toward the professor. "Let's show your mum how impressive you and I are together, yeah?"

Rose smiled and shook her head as she lowered her gaze to the floor. To her left she felt someone move to lean on the wall beside her. She didn't have to look up to know that the person was Jack Harkness. He had a very distinctive, sweet, smell about him that had remained in the console room of the TARDIS and in the hallways long after he'd left. It was a smell she equated with love and protection; a familial scent that would always and immediately send any anxiety, self-consciousness or worry off and into the winds. With him, Rose Tyler could always be herself – flaws and all – and he'd still love her with all the fierceness of a protective brother.

.. A protective brother that just snogged her…

She inhaled and lifted her head to ask him why he'd done it, but her question died on her tongue when he spoke apologetically to her.

"Rosie. You know I'd never have done that if I knew."

She didn't hesitate it or even question her intentions. Rose immediately slid her back along the wall to move toward him, and to curl into his side. She smiled when his arm came around her shoulder. "I know, Jack."

"I just thought I'd piss him off a bit," he admitted with a sigh. "You know. Light that jealous fuse of his and then smirk over your shoulder when you stopped him from killing me with his sonic screwdriver."

Rose chuckled at his side. "What makes you think I'd stop him?" She lifted her head to look him cheekily in the eye. "Kiss me with that mouth. My God, Jack. I don't know where it's been!"

He rolled his head backward on the wall and dropped his jaw in a laugh.

Rose grinned at his laughter and dropped her head onto his shoulder. She watched the Doctor eagerly instruct their child as they worked alongside the professor, and sighed contentedly. "Why'd you want to piss him off, Jack?"

He dropped his chin on top of his head and watched the trio strategise at the table. He let out a long sigh. "Foolish reason, really."

"Ahhh," she breathed knowingly. "One of _those_ things."

"He abandoned me back at the Space Station, Rose." He paused to let that sink in and to hear her breath catch. "I don't know for what reason, exactly. I thought we were all in a good place together, me, you and him."

"He was dyin'," she said quickly. "Maybe that was it."

His hold across her shoulder stiffened slightly and his voice tightened. "Dying? How'd you mean?"

Rose swallowed hard. "I did something, Jack. Something stupid." She sniffed. "And it killed him." Her eyes widened. "Well. Killed his leather-self anyway."

"So he regenerated when we were on the Station?"

She shook her head. "When the TARDIS took off." She frowned and looked up at him. "Did you know that Time Lord regenerated?"

"You could say that."

She humphed and slouched against him. "Yeah. Well I didn't," she groused. "Had no clue at all. Then with no warning at all except…" She put on her best Northern accent and lowered her voice to as masculine a tone as she could. " _I'm dyin', Rose._ _I'm gonna change, and I'm not gonna to see you again. At least not with this daft old face._ " She sighed high with remembrance. "And then, poof! A giant bloody firework explosion that terrified me no end, and I got _him_. A complete stranger, and there I was on the TARDIS in the vortex with nowhere to run."

Rose gestured to the Doctor with her hand as a pointer and looked in his direction. She shuddered to see him looking back at her with a remorseful expression on his face. She tipped her head with apology of her own that he'd overheard their conversation and snorted a slight laugh when his focus turned immediately back to the Professor and Gallifrey.

"A little bit of a heads up might've been nice."

"I guess he didn't think it'd be necessary to have to discuss it, Rose," he ventured quietly with eyes on the Doctor. "Time Lords can live for centuries in a single incarnation. He probably thought it wouldn't happen in your lifetime."

"But _you_ knew about regeneration, Jack," she said softly.

"Yes and no," he admitted with a shrug and a look into her eyes. "It wasn't something I knew as fact. I knew Time Lords only as legend and myth, not as fact." He looked back to the Doctor, who he could tell was listening into their conversation despite being otherwise occupied by a curious child and malfunctioning technology. "He let out a small laugh. "I'd guess about sixty-percent of the legend of the Time Lords is false, starting with the fact that they stand ten feet tall with the cut and chiseled stature of a Greek God and wear a tony little toga loomed in brilliant gold fibres taken from the very fabric of time herself."

He laughed at the Doctor's reaction to that – which was to widen his eyes in utter disbelief and cough out a disgusted breath.

"And considering what we have here is a scrawny, skinny, definitely not cut and sculpted like any Greek God…"

"Oi!" the Doctor hollered from the table. "Not nice."

"That's what you get for eaves-dropping, Doc," he called across with a smirk.

"I'll have you know that I'm a rather fine specimen of Time Lord superiority…"

"No wonder the civilization fell," he called back cheekily. He winced at the hurt that passed across the Doctor's eyes. "Damn. Too soon. Sorry, Doc."

Before he could retort in any fashion, the room filled with the sound of alarms. Both the Doctor and Jack rushed from their positions to take a look at the communications console.

Chantho called out with panic from the computer. "Chan, we're losing power, tho!" She looked up worriedly to the Professor as he moved ot her side to look over the readings for himself. "Chan, what's happening, Professor, tho?"

He shook his head. "I don't know." He lifted his head to look toward the Doctor. "Do you have anything on the readings over there, Doctor?"

"Radiation's rising," he called back sharply. "That chamber's going to flood – and you have men in there working on the couplings."

Yana pounded on the communication button. "Get those men out of there," he ordered sharply. "That chamber's going to flood with radiation – they won't survive it."

"No time," the Doctor growled under his breath. He flicked his eyes to Jack. "Captain! Override the vents."

"Working on it, Doc." His eyes flicked to the monitor. "For God's sake, get them out of there."

"Get the override working!"

Jack huffed and pulled back sharply from the computer. He rushed past Gallifrey with a quick apology and pointed toward Rose. "Get the kid clear."

She nodded and curved her hands around Gallifrey's neck to pull him close into her belly. She gasped with worry when Jack picked up two live cables from the floor.

"What're you doin', Jack?"

He feigned calm and gave her a wink. "We can jump start the override."

"No!," the Doctor cried out as Jack brought the two cable together. "It's going to flare!"

Jack's cream filled the room as the cables arced and then shot their energy through him. All anyone could do was watch helplessly as the energy visibly tore through Jack and he fell into a lifeless heap on the floor. Rose clutched at her child and held his face against her belly to try and shield him from the image as best she could. She looked to the Doctor with horror.

"Do somethin'!" she yelled to him.

Martha broke from the wall and rushed toward him. She fell hard to her knees and held one hand out to the Doctor. "I've got him." She looked to Rose with apology when she feel to her knees on the other side of Jack. "He'll be okay, Rose. I've got him, yeah?"

The Doctor gave an unperturbed shrug. "Yeah. Right. Just watch the cables."

Yana shook his head as he walked up beside the Doctor. He looked down to where Martha was giving Jack mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. "Oh. I'm so sorry."

The Doctor's countenance was flat, as was his voice. "The chamber's flooded with radiation, yes?"

Yana nodded. "And without the couplings, the engines will never start." He winced and then lengthened his expression as he let out a disappointed huff. "It was all for nothing."

"Oh. I don't know," the Doctor breathed as he stepped toward Jack. He put his hands on Rose's shoulders. "Come on, Rose. Leave him."

"But, Doctor," she whined pathetically as he gently pulled her up to her feet and held her against his side.

The Doctor held a hand down to Martha. "I think that's enough, Martha. Leave him."

She took his hand and let him draw her to a stand. "But you have to let me try."

He held her against his side – opposite to where he held Rose – and stroked at her shoulder with his thumb. "Come on, come on," he cooed, one gentle command for each of the whimpering girls. "Just listen to me, the both of you. Leave him alone."

He then inhaled deep and looked to the Professor. His voice held no sadness or emotion at all. If anything, his voice held a slight hint of a smile. "It steikes me, Professor, you've got a room that a man can't enter witout dying. Is that correct?"

Yana's brows pinched in tightly. "Yes, Doctor. The room is full of Stet Radiation."

The Doctor hummed as he released the two women and crouched beside Jack. "Never heard of it."

"You wouldn't want to," he answered in a defeated tone of voice. "The chamber is flooded with it. It's lethal to any ordinary man."

The Doctor removed his glasses and winked as he popped them into his breast pocket. "Well…" He grinned when Jack suddenly gasped for breath and came back to life. "I've got just the man for the job. And there's nothing _ordinary_ about him."

Jack wiped at his mouth. "Was someone kissing me?"

~~oooOOOooo~~

The Doctor's coat billowed out behind him as he ran beside Jack through the silo toward the main communications room. He was unapologetic as he burst into the room, startling the officer that was working the system.

"Lieutenant." He narrowed his eyes looking for any confirmation that he's gotten the rank correctly. He shook his head with a roll in his eyes when he considered just how unimportant it was right at this time. He grinned instead. "I want you to get onboard the rocket. I promise you that you're gonna fly!"

The lieutenant shook his head and gestured toward the coupling room. "The chamber's flooded. There's no way…"

"Trust me," the Doctor interrupted sharply. "We've found a way of tripping the system." He pulled the Lieutenant's chair out from under the desk and gave it a decent shove toward the door. "Now go. Run!"

The Lieutenant barely looked backward as he pushed himself up off the chair and ran through the doorway as ordered. The Doctor wore a smile as he watched after him. The smile fell to a look of bafflement when he turned back to see Jack removing his shirt.

"What are you taking your clothes off for?"

Jack actually smiled with a waggle in his brow. "Now that I've got you all alone in here."

"Jack…"

"I'm going in," Jack clarified with a smile. He tipped his head to the door. "Into the chamber, that is. The chamber full of stet radiation."

The Doctor's brow lifted. His voice was low and with a hint of long suffering frustration. "Well. By the looks of it, I'd say that the stet radiation doesn't affect clothing, only flesh."

Jack winked and let his shirt fall to the floor, turning to approach the chamber. "But I look good through." He pressed his hand into the door and looked back to the Doctor. "How long have you known?"

The subject of knowing didn't need to be clarified. The Doctor binked, and then licked at his lip. "Ever since I ran away from you." He passed his gaze over Jack's shoulder to the door. "Good luck."

Jack expelled a breath and steeled himself. He then straightened, clenched his fists a couple of times, and then opened the door. He was quick to curl around the door and close it behind him before too much radiation could leak toward the Doctor. He wasted no time in moving to the couplings.

The Doctor stepped to the door and leaned against it. He looked through a rounded port window to watch Jack work.

~~oooOOOooo~~

Back in the lab, Martha and Rose sat side by side in front of the computer monitor. Gallifrey was perched on his mother's lap and bounced with nervous energy when the image of his father disappeared from the monitor.

"We lost the picture when that thing flared up," she said quietly to the young boy. "But don't worry, okay?"

Gallifrey bit at his thumbnail and shook his head. "Kay."

Martha leaned to the mic. "Doctor, are you there?"

His voice crackled over the speaker. "Receiving, yeah. He's inside."

"And still alive?" she questioned in a hoarse voice.

"Oh yes," the Doctor replied happily.

Yana shook his head with bewilderment. He stood behind the two women beside Chantho, who remained quiet and confused about it all.

"But he should evaporate, Doctor," Yana stated with obvious disbelief. "What sort of man is he?"

"I've only just met him," Martha answered without looking back at him. "The Doctor sort of travels through time and space and picks people up." She looked to Rose with wide eyes. "God. I make us sound like dogs."

"I've said that more than once," Rose said with a light laugh as Gallifrey let out a playful woof. "Maybe we are."

Yana whispered a cautious question and looked away distractedly from the woman. "He travels in time?"

Martha's worry had morphed to amusement. "Don't ask me to explain it," she said with a shrug and a thumb back toward the TARDIS. "That's a TARDIS. The sports car of time travel, he says."

"Sports car?" Rose blustered with disgust. "She's a brilliant sentient creature who can flawlessly navigate her way throughout all time and space. She is better than a sports car could ever hope to be."

"Rose," the Doctor's voice crackled with pride down the line. "I love you."

"Quite right, Doctor," she answered back. "I love you more."

Gallifrey groaned and covered his ears. "Not listening to this," he moaned as he twisted in his seat to look toward the only other man in the room. "Am I right?"

Yana didn't answer. His focus had become glassy and trancelike.

Gallifrey rolled his eyes. "I'm never getting old like that…"

~~oooOOOooo~~

The Doctor leaned his temple against the glass door and folded his arms across his chest to watch as Jack moved through the couplings.

"When did you first realize?" He queried randomly.

Jack let one side of his mouth pull up into a smirk. "Earth. 1892. Got into a fight in Ellis Island. A man shot me through the heart." He curled his lip with the effort of pulling at the coupler, which made his voice slightly hoarse. "Then I woke up." He shrugged. "Thought it was kinda strang, but then it never stopped." He lifted his eyes to the ceiling to recall more events. "Fell off a cliff, trampled by horses, World war I, World War II, poison, strangulation, a stray javelin…"

The Doctor winced at the image in his mind of Jack being impaled by a javelin.

""But in the end," Jack continued. "I got the message. I'm the man who can never die." He looked toward the Doctor with accusation in his eye. "And all that time you knew."

The Doctor let out a breath and nodded. "That's why I left you behind," he answered on a low voice. "It's not easy even just." He paused and winced slightly. "Just looking at you, Jack, 'cause you're wrong."

Jack looked up with a roll in his eyes. "Thanks."

The Doctor rubbed at his eye with the tip of his finger. He spoke through a slightly gaped jaw that strangled his voice somewhat. "You are. I can't help it. I'm a time Lord. It's instinct. It's in my guts."

"Yeah, well I saw that with your kid." He winced as he tugged hard on a stuck coupler. "Did I really make him that ill?"

The Doctor nodded. "You're a fixed point in time and space. You're a fact. That's never meant to happen." He rolled his head to press his forehead into the glass. "Even the TARDIS reacted against you, tried to shake you off." He swallowed. "She flew all the way to the end of the universe just to get rid of you."

"Yeah," he said with a grunt. "Feeling the love…"

"It's hard to fight instinct, Jack. Even you have to know that." He pulled his head from the glass to look distractedly across the glass to the other side of the room. "Any of my people would react the same way toward you."

"I get it," he said with a grunt as he finished the third coupling. "So what you're saying is that you're, uh, prejudiced?"

The Doctor actually smiled as he rubbed at his eye again. "I never thought of it like that."

"Yeah."

~~oooOOOooo~~

Rose stared wordlessly at the speaker as she listened in to the conversation between her husband and her once-upon-a-time adopted brother. She didn't fully understand what they were talking about; why the Doctor and apparently Gallifrey were instinctively obliged to feel uncomfortable around him.

The Conversation did glean one new aspect of Jack that she didn't know. And that was that he couldn't die. That was something she found herself unable to comprehend – especially given that until only a couple of hours ago she thought that he _was_ dead.

"Last thing I remember," Jack's voice crackled over the speaker. "back when I was mortal. I was facing threeDaleks. Death by extermination. And then I came back to life. What happened?"

The Doctor's voice was reverent when he answered. "Rose."

Rose gasped at that. "What?"

Jack continued with his questions. "I thought you sent her back home."

"She came back," the Doctor answered in a voice that held amusement, pride and sadness. She opened the heart of the TARDIS and absorbed the time vortex."

Rose could feel Martha's eyes on her. Eyes that asked the same question that Jack voiced over the communications line. "What does that mean, exactly?"

"Noone's ever meant to have that power," the Doctor answered quietly. It was obvious by the tone of his voice that he knew Rose was listening and that he didn't want her to hear the story presented like this. Bu the soldiered on. "If a Time Lord did what she did. If they had that power, they'd become a god. A vengeful god." He inhaled an obviously reverent inhale. "But she was human."

"Is," Jack corrected.

"She's more than that," the Doctor breathed. "So much more than just a human."

"In reality, Doctor, or just in your mind?"

"Even you have to admit, Jack. Rose has always been more than that." There was a smile in his voice. "And she really is. She's my wife. The Mother of the newest line of Time Lords … The mother of an entirely new civilization. Brilliant."

Jack chuckled. "This is a side of you I've never seen before," he admitted. "A man absolutely besotted."

"Since my Fourth incarnation, Jack," he admitted. "Love struck and devoted."

"That's," he grunted. "Oh, this one's a little stuck." He winced and tugged. "That's nice, though, Doc. You deserve it. Both of you."

There was silence for a moment, with nothing over the comms except the crackle of static and the hiss of steam. And then after a while, the Doctor's voice softly came through again. "Do you wanna die?"

"Another one stuck," he replied with a grunt.

The Doctor pressed on. "Jack…"

"I thought I did," he answered smoothly. "I dunno. But this lot. You see them out here surviving and that's fantastic." He chuckled. "What kind've man am I if I want to give up, you know?"

"You could be out there somewhere."

The grin in his voice was obvious. "I could go meet myself."

"Well," the Doctor answered cheekily. "The only man you're ever going to be happy with."

Jack's chuckle crackled down the line. "This new regeneration of yours. It's kind've cheeky."

Martha shook her head as the banter lightened between the two men. "I never understand half the things he says."

Rose agreed with a nod. "Tell me about it." She dropped her chin onto Gallifrey's head. "And get these two together…"

Martha laughed. "Tell me about it!" she looked to Yana with a smile on her face as though to share the joke. Her smile fell to see him in a trance. "What's wrong?"

Chantho put her hand on the Professor's shoulder. "Chan, Professor, what is it, tho?"

"Time travel," he half whispered. "They say there was time travel back in the old days. I never really believed. I never really considered it to be honest." His eyes flicked to Martha. "Until today, of course." His expression turned dark. "But what would I know? I'm just a stupid old man. Never could keep time. Always late. Always lost." He pulled a fob watch from his waist coat pocket. "Even this thing never worked."

He ignored the wide-eyed stares from the three time travelers at the monitor. "Time and time again. Always running out of time."

Martha reached out a shaking hand. "Can I have a look at that?"

"It's only an old relic," he said with mirth. "Like me."

Rose swallowed thickly and held onto Gallifrey a little bit tighter when the youngster tried to straighten up to take a look for himself. "Where did you get it?"

"Hmm?" he queried as he toyed with the clasp. "Oh. I was found with it."

"What do you mean," Rose asked on a whisper.

"An orphan in the storm," he answered with melancholy. "I was a naked child found on the coast of the Silver Devastation. Abandoned with only this?"

Rose's voice was meek and she offered Martha a pointed look that told her to go find the Doctor. "Have you opened it, Professor?"

"Why would I," he asked incredulously. "It's broken."

Martha thumbed to the door and drew herself to a stand. "I think I'm going to see if the Doctor needs me."

"Good idea," Rose said on a rushed breath. She tried to force Gallifrey off her knee. "Take Gal with you. I'm sure he can be good help to his dad…"

"Not goin' anywhere," he said vehemently with a shake of his head. "Stayin' with you, Mum."

Yana kept mumbling to himself as his fingers toyed with the clasp of the watch. "It's stuck. It's old. It's really not meant to be. I don't know."

Martha looked at it sitting in his palm. She heard Rose's breath catch at the same time as hers when they both noted the engravings of the piece were eerily similar to those of the Doctor's back at Farrington.

"Yeah," Martha practically gushed. "The Doctor. Let me go find the Doctor."

"Please hurry," Rose whispered urgently. "Please."

"Come with me," she whispered in reply.

"Won't leave the TARDIS."

Martha nodded and leapt out of the chair. "Well everything looks good here. If you'll excuse me. I'm going to get the Doctor, and Jack, and we'll be right back to get you on that ship to Utopia, yeah?"

Yana looked up to Martha and nodded slowly. "My thanks, Martha. To the Doctor." He looked down to the watch as he heard the hiss of the door closing behind Martha.

Images and words flew through his mind. Whispers and drums – oh the steady sound of drums in his head.

"Professor," Rose probed gently as she held her hand out to him. "Do you mind if I hold the watch, please? My son, Gallifrey. He does love to look at old time pieces, perhaps he can tell you what's wrong with it?"

The word _Gallifrey_ swirled inside his mind, and Yana curled his hand around the watch. He saw a red planet with silver-leafed trees glowing like rapid wildfire under the blazing light of twin suns and he felt the desperate and longing pull inside his chest toward time herself. With a gasp he opened his eyes and looked upon a young boy with eyes that swirled with the eternity of the entire universe. He saw inside whiskey-brown eyes the birth and death of planets, galaxies and civilizations.

"The Master," he shuddered out to the child as he dragged his thumb across the clasp of the watch. With a clink of metal on the tiled floor and the blinding flash of golden light over taking him, Yana let out a shattered cry throughout the room.

The cry of fear and agony shifted to a bellow of might and power – and victory.

Rose pulled Gallifrey tightly against her and curled herself around him as best she could in her attempt to shield him from the light, and hopefully from any danger that might come from whatever was happening within the firelight in front of them.

The winds of change were still blowing around her when she felt a feather-light touch of fingers under her chin. She let that touch coax her into looking up at the old man and hoped beyond all hope that he was still just that .. just a man.

The ancient swirl inside his blue eyes sent her heart crashing down into her belly. He grinned a filthy smile. "You are Rose Tyler," he said with a chuckle. "The Bonded wife of the Time Lord Doctor." His eyes shifted to Gallifrey. "And his precious child…"

"Oh," Gallifrey whimpered against his mother's bosom as he clutched tightly at her. "I just _know_ that I'm not gonna like you."

"Don't be like that," Yana said with a grin as he straightened up and looked the both of them up and down with a raking glare of analysis. "Your father and I go way back, young Gallifrey. Way back to when we were mere loomlings creating havock around the great Prydonian Chapterhouses." He grimaced just slightly and blew out a breath. "Oh, we were such good friend back then. Such good friends."

"Which one are you," Rose asked inside a whisper.

"Oh, but how times change," he continued shortly. His eyes widened in a maniacal, manic manner as his lip curled into a hiss. "Oh, how times change."

"Which one," she demanded on a yell. "Which Time Lord are you?"

"Oh, my dear Rose Tyler. I'm the most important one of them all – at least I am to _him_." Yana grinned wide and walked to the doorway to lock it, and all of them inside. He turned and blew her a kiss. "Allow me to introduce myself. I'm the Master."


	10. The Master

A/N:I've tossed aside the tranpscript and am not even trying to follow it anymore ... so I apologise if your OCD taps you on the shoulder with comments of "She's not getting it right!" ... grin.

It's much easier to write when I write it by myself. Not much to say today, except thanks for your comments, follows and kudos .. they are very much appreciated!

Hope you enjoy ...

~~oooOOOooo~~

Martha was clearly flustered as she rounded the corner in search of the Doctor and Jack. Her breath flew out of her as a yelp that morphed to loud panting as she slammed into Jack's side. She swallowed over a dry tongue and leaned forward with her hands braced on her thighs and battled to calm her breathing.

"Doctor," she managed in a pant. "You've got to get back to the lab."

"Can't right now," he said through his teeth as his fingers searched across a control panel on the wall in the middle of a corridor. "Just need a minute to make sure that everything's online and stable…"

"But the professor," she began in a pant. "He's. He's!"

"He's _what_?" Jack demanded gruffly.

"Is he alright?" The Doctor asked casually. His attention was still on the panel in front of him.

She nodded in reply and swallowed again in a desperate effort to wet her dry tongue. "He's being a little absent minded, but that isn't out of the ordinary from what we've seen of him to this point, yeah?"

The Doctor shook his head. "To be expected, really. He's an aging human – forgetfulness and distraction is quite par for the course." He sighed and checked the last of the switches on the panel. "I think you'll find when you're at that age, Martha, that you'll have your own moments that will have your children and grandchildren questioning the viability of assisted living to take you through…"

"Nice, Doctor," she said with a sniff. "Though I think I'll be fully in control of all of my facilities when I reach that age."

The Doctor smiled with a tight press of his lips against each other. "Yeah," he breathed out. "We all say that, don't we? Then the years move on and we find ourselves forgetting small things: Why we walked into a specific room. Where did I put my keys. Why did I put my icecream in the oven…."

"Who did I sleep with last night," Jack added with a smirk.

The Doctor spared him a look, and then shook his head. "I have a feeling that age has nothing to do with you asking yourself _that_ question, Jack."

He grinned in response and flicked a wink toward Martha. "Hypervodka. Ever tried it?"

"No," she answered shortly as she folded her arms tightly across her chest. "But maybe after all this I might seek out a bottle and hide out in the pool room in the TARDIS for a while."

The Doctor definitely sensed a bit of hostility in her tone and turned to face her fully. He dipped his head and exaggerated the motion of looking from eye to eye. "Is something the matter?"

"Why no, Doctor," she sang back facetiously. "I just thought it was no fun at all that the two of you were getting to do all the running, so I decided to take a run for myself."

He hummed a sound of displeasure. "There is no reason for you to be so glib," he remarked coolly. "I'm going to guess that with you not dragging me back by my tie that whatever has you spooked isn't an immediate danger…"

"That all depends," she interrupted indignantly.

His brows shot high. "On _what_?"

"On whether or not you think the presence of another Time Lord is a bad thing."

The Doctor felt Jack's eyes shift with lightning speed toward him, but he didn't remove his gaze from Martha. Instead he tightened his eyes to analyse the woman with more scrutiny. He could see the conviction in her stance. He could tell that she truly believed the words that just fell from her lips.

"As preposterous as the idea is," he began slowly. "It being a good or bad thing will depend entirely on which Time Lord you think is here." His head tipped to one side and his eyes softened. He smiled his own brand of facetious smiles. "Any idea who, Martha?"

She blinked to give him a look of annoyance. "Oh," she sang with a smile. "The Surgeon? Nurse? Anesthesiologist? Ophthalmologist, perhaps? Oh! What about the _Matron_?" She grimaced and shook her head. "No. That's a female term…"

"Yes. I get it," the Doctor said with a light smile tugging at the edges of his mouth. "Very funny, Martha Jones. I see a future in comedy for you."

"Oh, ha ha," she huffed out with a roll I her eye. "A soothsayer, you are."

"Time Traveller," he corrected with a smile.

Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped. "No. Tell me … no."

He put his hand on her shoulder and dipped his head to regard her with a smile. "No, Martha. All I see for you is continued brilliance." He wore a smile of pride. "And I'm going to be so proud of you. So proud."

She couldn't help but smile and sigh under his gaze. "As much as hearing you say that makes my day, Doctor. I think you really should get back to see the Professor. Rose seemed pretty worried and wanted me to come find you."

His hold on her shoulder tightened. "Rose and Gal. Are they okay?"

She nodded frantically. "When I left they were fine. Rose was a little worried, but other than that, she and Gallifrey seem perfectly fine." She swallowed and widened her eyes to look up at him with pleading. "It's Yana, Doctor. I." She swallowed again. "I think he's a Time Lord."

The Doctor snatched his hand off her shoulder. "Don't be daft," he accused hotly. "There _are_ no more. I'm the last. The one and the only Gallifreyan-loomed Time Lord left in the universe."

She shook her head. " _You are not alone_ ," she recited urgently. "The message from Boe. Do you remember?"

He turned sharply from her and thrust his hands into his pockets. He bit his lips together and lifted them both into a grimace. With a shake of his head he started to walk slowly back toward the laboratory. "Impossible," he breathed. "They're gone. All of them."

"But…"

He spun again and tapped at his temple. "It's too quiet, Martha. Up here." He tapped harder at his temple. "If there were any of them left I'd feel them. Here. Right here. But I can't. I just can't."

"He has a watch," she said quickly in a voice full of urging. "Like yours. The one you had at Farrington."

He shook his head again and resumed his walk toward the laboratory. "You have to be mistaken, Martha. I'm sorry. I know you mean well; but the chance that there is a Chameleon-Arched Time Lord here at the very end of the universe itself so infantismal." He sighed, but quickened his pace somewhat. "So very slight…"

"But a chance is still a chance, Doctor," she ventured with passion in her voice. "Otherwise why is it there?"

"For hope," he breathed. "When there isn't any."

She cupped her hand around his arm to stop him from walking further. "I saw the watch, Doctor. I'm not playing games with you. It had markings on it." She brought her hands together to circle her finger against her palm in a gesture that punctuated her claim to the design. "That swirly Time Lord writing."

"Circular Gallifreyan," he corrected quietly with a look down his shoulder at her. "The language of the Time Lords."

"Yes," she hissed. "Circular Gallifreyan. The same symbols that I see all over the TARDIS monitors and on the post-it notes you leave here and there and refuse to translate for us. This marking are there. All over it."

He wanted to believe it. He did. But he couldn't bring himself to hope. He shook his head. "Oh Martha." He lifted his head and closed his eyes. "I appreciate how much you want me to be able to find my people again, but it's impossible. It's just … _impossible._ "

"He's behaving just like you did when you were human," she threw in. "Absent-minded and disappearing inside trances, dreams and nonsense." She inhaled and exhaled hard. "You wouldn't be able to see the comparison like I can, Doctor. You didn't see what you were like when your memories of being a Time Lord started to come back." She touched his arm again. "But I was there. Rose was there. Gal. Oh, young Gallifrey – he saw more than anyone else."

His voice was hushed and full of emotion. "You don't know how much I want to believe you, Martha."

She touched her hand to his shoulder. "Do you trust me, Doctor?"

"You know I do."

"Then give me the benefit of your doubt," she implored softly. "Trust me on this. Trust your wife."

His eyes flicked up quickly to her. "Rose thinks the same thing as you?"

Martha nodded. "I think so." She inhaled deeply. "And Doctor … She's worried. So worried that she's refusing to leave the TARDIS."

Jack grunted; more to get someone's attention rather than in annoyance. He waited until he had two pairs of eyes on him and then looked toward the Doctor. "What's the harm in entertaining the notion of another Time Lord in the universe, Doc?"

The Doctor shook his head and then indicated toward the end of the hallway with a tip of his head. He then thrust his hands into his trouser pockets and headed in that direction. "If you knew what the Time Lords had become when I ended it all, Jack, you'd understand. I don't know that I even _want_ any of them to have survived it." He swallowed thickly and lowered his chin to look ahead of him through his brows. He let out a snort. "If he was devious and cunning enough to escape detection from the transcription calls from Gallifrey…" He didn't want to finish that thought.

Martha did. "Then what, Doctor?"

"The most dangerous people in the universe are cowards, Martha," he answered with gruffness in his voice. "And if this is a Time Lord who ran from his duty to his people, then he's the biggest coward of them all." He paused and blinked slowly. "I am the coward I know, and look at who I became…"

"Don't be so hard on yourself," Martha ordered on a whisper. "You're the bravest man I know."

Jack snorted at her side. "I'll try by best not to be offended by that," he muttered with amusement as he looked down to check on his firearm holstered safely at his hip. He didn't notice that the Doctor had stopped short in front of him. He grunted as he collided with his back. He readied a fast-witted shot, but held it in his throat when he noticed the Doctor's stone-faced and focused stare.

"Doc?" he ventured warily. "You okay?"

The Doctor didn't answer the question posed by Jack. He remained perfectly still; a pinstriped and skinny statue caught mid-stride in the middle of the corridor. His chest barely moved with his breaths, and if Jack didn't know the man better, he would've suggested that the Time Lord had stopped breathing. He noticed a movement in his head; a twist so slow that it would've been imperceptible if you weren't looking for it.

He immediately set his hand on his firearm and readied for the explosive sprint toward the laboratory that he knew was coming.

"Be ready, Martha," he muttered through the side of his mouth in warning. "I think Doc's got something."

She nodded and then spun as the walls around them began to rumble. She staggered just slightly as the floor shook below her feet and looked toward Jack with question. "Is that…?"

Jack shook his head. "That's the rocket." He had to smile at the thought of the passengers of the ship finally on their way to Utopia. "They're off."

She nodded somewhat frantically. "And that's good, right?"

"That's _very_ good," he answered with a beaming grin. That grin then faltered. "Now as for our last member of the Time Lord race here…"

"No," the Doctor breathed out along a very long breath. "Rassilon, no."

Jack flicked his eyes to the Doctor, and then looked quickly to Martha. He tipped his head toward the end of the corridor. "Get ready. I believe we have our own impending launch sequence activating."

The Doctor shifted. "No. No no no no." His chest shifted forward and he moved into a long stalking stride that quickly tightened, shortened, and then quickened into a fast run. "For the love of Arcadia, please no. Anyone. Anyone but _him_."

Jack's preparation for the run had him fall into place at the Doctor's side in an identical stride. Martha was only a step behind them.

"What's wrong, Doc?" Jack blustered out in a voice that warned the Doctor not to withhold anything. "Who is it we're dealing with."

The Doctor panted, and didn't look in Jack's direction as he answered. "My best friend…" he huffed out before drawing in a deep breath. "...And my mortal enemy."

"Who has your wife and child," He continued morosely. "It's a good thing he's under this _arch_ thing, yeah?"

The Doctor shook his head and rounded the corner. He skidded and then skipped on his feet as he drew short of colliding hard against the large metal door that shut out the lab from the corridor. He panted with urgency as his head flicked side to side in a search for the access panel that would allow them to open the door.

"Doc?" Jack persisted. "Doc. Tell me he's still hidden by this arch thing."

The Doctor pulled his sonic screwdriver from the breast pocket of his blazer. "Do I really have to get into it now, Jack? My wife and child are in the hands of a man who makes the Daleks look like friendly little kittens."

Martha pushed hard at the door. She let out a cry of exertion as she struggled against the door. "It's locked."

"I kind've got that already, thanks," the Doctor growled as he aimed the sonic at the access panel to try to get it to release. "The Time Lord that stands on the other side of that door is the most cold, calculating, evil and brilliant man ever to be born into this universe." He levied her a dark look. "He's certainly not going to forget to lock a door."

"Yeah," she snarled in reply. "Doesn't hurt to check anyway, does it?"

The Doctor focused along his arm at the aim of his sonic screwdriver. His lip curled and he hissed through his teeth as though trying to add sheer force of will to the power of his tool for it to work. He let out an exhale of utter disappointment. "Deadlocked," he growled.

"Just a little bit," a voice hollered from beyond the door. "And I must say that I'm quite shocked that you haven't managed to fix that setting on that handy little toy of yours by now, Doctor." He chuckled. "Just how many times do I have to exploit that little oversight of yours before you work on that? What will it take to get you to focus a little and get the job done; the death of your wife and child?"

The Doctor threw himself at the door and slammed both hands into the door. "Let me in!"

"Oh ho ho," the voice chuckled on a low breathy laugh. "You keep on knocking, Doctor, but I'm not taking visitors right now."

There was a childish yelp and then Rose hollered for the release of her child.

The Doctor switched from panicked to absolutely frantic and pounded on the doors. "Leave them alone, Koschei. This is between you and me, not them. Leave them out of it!"

There was enough of a pause for the Doctor to imagine the other man clicking his tongue in disappointment. "Now. You and I might've had some fun back in the day, Doctor, but I'm sorry to say that we've grown apart over the centuries." He let up a sharp laugh. "I've got two new friends now."

The sound of Gallifrey calling through the doorway for his father drove the Doctor toward the very brink of complete madness. He pounded his fists repeatedly on the metal door and hollered for "Koschei" to let him in.

"Koschei, Doctor?" he answered with a laugh. "You and I both know that I haven't gone by that name in a very long time."

The Doctor dropped his forehead on the door. He panted with exhaustion and with worry for his family beyond the door. "Please," he begged. "Take me instead. Leave them alone."

"What's my name, Doctor," he ordered through the door. "Tell me who I am and I'll consider trading your mate and spawnling for you."

"Master," the Doctor whispered against the door. He winced at the deep hitch in Jack's breath beside him. "You're the Master."

"I can't hear you," he thundered furiously from the other side of the door. "Who. Am. I? Say my name."

The Doctor lifted his head. He pressed both palms hard against the door. He pushed his weight against his palms with a hard lean. "The Master," he called back darkly. "You are the Time Lord Master." He punched one fist against the door. "Now let my family go!"

There was a slight pause from the other side of the door. It was a pause long enough for the Doctor to call out again for the Master to let his family go.

Finally, after what seemed to span a lifetime, the Master answered the Doctor's demand.

" _Your_ family, Doctor?"

The Doctor's breath hitched and then caught to completely still the man in place. He didn't need to make any form of comment to the question posed from the other side of the door. His entire posture screamed out his sudden and incredible fear for the people he loved most in the universe.

Jack launched forward to lay a punch against the door. "Only a coward goes after a man's family. Let 'em go."

The Doctor breathed Jack's name and shook his head. The fear in his eyes bled out like a thick soup.

" _The Doctor's family_ ," the Master sang inside a laugh. "You know. I've always fancied _myself_ a bit of a family man. Not that I have any need for a wife, mind. Particularly not one with the unfortunate condition of being telepathically tied to another Time Lord." He sighed. "Why any individual would permanently bond themselves to another is a complete mystery to me." His voice softened and Rose was heard to utter a sound of disgust. "Though she is very lovely, Doctor, I'll give you that. So very full of fire."

"Please leave them alone," the Doctor breathed against the door. "Please."

"Now. While I don't fancy taking myself a wife. I've always wanted a son of my own – a protégé to grow and learn at my side."

The Doctor's eyes hardened at the door. His voice shifted from fearful to dangerous. "Don't even think about it," he warned low."

"…And look here. A fully toilet trained, clever little boy that's still young enough to learn to call me father."

The Doctor shoved himself off the door and snarled as he shoved his sonic screwdriver in between his teeth and dug his fingernails into the edges of the access panel beside the door. He hissed around the shaft of the screwdriver as he tugged hard to tear the small access door free.

Jack moved in beside the Doctor; worried for the rising fury in the man and what it might do to his ability to focus. "Doc. This is Rose and Gal he's talking about. There's no way he'll ever get either of them without a fight."

"You don't get it, Jack," the Doctor growled around his Screwdriver as he viciously tore at the wires beyond the panel door. "The Master – he's persuasive."

"Not _that_ persuasive, Doc," he argued softly. "I know Rosie, and there's no way that she…"

"Shut up, Jack," he snapped harshly. "Just. Just shut up. Let me think." He panted and grunted again as he tugged on a rather difficult wire. "I can't think. Too much noise, there's too much god-damned noise in my head right now."

Jack coughed into his fist and managed to swallow down his immediate reaction to the Doctor's words. He merely expelled a breath and kept himself level. "Right. There's more to this guy than all the rumours we've all heard about him, I'm guessing."

"The rumours don't even scratch the surface, Jack," he replied quietly. He shuddered slightly as he aimed his sonic into the wiring and let it buzz its reassuring buzz. "My people. We possess a lot of abilities that other races consider to be gifts: Telepathy, Hypnosis, Telekenesis." He held two wires together and zapped it with his sonic. "We aren't strong in all of them, mind. Any Gallifreyan might get one of two, and then study and train to perfect that ability." He swallowed. "I'm a certified telepathic Master, myself."

"Meaning."

The Doctor took his eyes from his task only long enough to look toward Jack with an expression of weariness. "When we have time…" He looked back to the job at hand. "The Master. He's both a telepathic master _and_ an academy certified specialist in hypnosis."

"Oh shit, Doc."

The Doctor nodded. "My telepathic ability surpasses his, which will protect my mind from his," he said with a smirk. "And I spent more than enough time at the academy reversing the effects of his hypnotic pranking."

"But Gal and Rose can't protect themselves, can they?"

The Doctor shook his head. "I've worked with Gal on shielding techniques, but nothing on the scale to be able to fight against a mental attack by the Master."

"You mean that this Master fellow has the full potential to turn your child completely against you and he'll have no fight against it?"

"Oh, but he'll try," the Doctor said with a smile of pride. "My boy will challenge old Koschei and give him a run for his money." He sighed. "And hopefully it'll give me enough time to be able to get this door open."

There was a shriek from beyond the door, and a strained voice of a panicking child calling out desperately for his father's help. The Doctor staggered back from the access panel as he felt the telepathic onslaught being thrust at his child's mind. He heard as Rose hollered to let her child go. There was a scream, and then a gunshot.

And the Doctor's mind went silent.


	11. Stowaways

A/N: I'll say it before any of you can: "What the bloody hell was THAT?"

This chapter ... hmmmm ... how to describe this chapter then? It is the introduction of a few of the players that are joining in on this adventure. It doesn't necessarily move anything along, but gives you a little bit of characterizations on those who've come to help - and perhaps a tiny little whisper of just why they came in to help.

I apologise in advance if this chapter makes you simply shake your head, roll your eyes, and huff a little, but I needed to get a feel for all of them before the first of many battles for survival begin here.

I hope you enjoy this chapter. We get back to the Doc shortly.

~~oooOOOooo~~

The TARDIS rotor column whined quietly at the man who stood at her console with a flop in his hair, a bow-tie at his throat and a fitted purple tweed jacket unbuttoned to reveal a black vest and gold chain from which hung an elegant golden fob watch. He smiled as he lifted deep-set green eyes to the column.

"I know, Aunty. It's been a little while, hasn't it?" He winked and then lowered his gaze to the keyboard to watch his own fingers dance a series of carefully choreographed movements. "Wish we could've reunited under happier circumstances – but you know how Dad is. He's always getting himself into some sort of mischief and mayhem." He looked back up to the rotor column and smiled on one side of his mouth. His brows waggled just slightly. "Or is it you, you little minx, that wants the adventure?"

There was a light and airy chuckle from the doorway to the console room. "I think you'll find that in this case, Gal. That this whole mess was entirely _your_ fault."

Gallifrey didn't look toward the doorway. Instead he lifted his eyes to where the column met with the ceiling and exhaled a long breath through an open mouth. "Which is why I'm going to make sure that what happened back then is _not_ going to happen _now_."

He looked down at his arm, and to the delicate hand that had cupped gently around his elbow. At her whispered apology, he petted her hand and shook his head. "Cobblemouse, you have nothing to apologise for."

"Doesn't matter," she sang with a whisper as she nestled against his side. She pulled his arm up around his shoulder and looked up into his face with a smile. "I think you need some forgiveness for it."

He kissed lightly at the top of her head; on the very crest of a brunette braid inset with a fine golden ribbon that was cut far too long for the length of the plait down her back. He shuddered out a breath against her hair. "I can still feel him in there, you know. It sometimes feels like Dad wasn't able to get rid of him completely." His breath shuddered out of him. "And it really scares me that one day – I'm gonna be that kid again. The one who broke Dad's hearts."

"Don't' be daft," she answered back softly. "None of us would ever let that happen to you."

A second female voice caressed the air inside the TARDIS console room. This voice was not as soft and warm as that of Alyea Tyler. It was firm and spoke in a silken monotone that omitted any inflictions or emotion. When one spoke with Innocetjilluntermaclungbarrowmas, one listened only to her words; not a perceived underlying message.

"I believe, Cousin Alyea, that the task of minding the health and stability of your brother's mind is his own, don't you?"

Alyea drew back from Gallifrey and clasped her hands in front of her in respect. She dared not argue. Innocet had the ability to lever a physical slap without ever having lifted a hand to do it, and she used that trick on each and every one of the Lungbarrow children when they dared step out of line.

"Yes, Cousin Innocet," she answered dutifully. "You're correct, of course."

"Indeed," she answered back with a smile as she moved with enough grace as to look like she smoothly glided across the grated floor of the TARDIS. "I typically am."

Gallifrey watched with a lightly lowered head and a rise in his brow as Innocet moved into position across the console from where he and Alyea stood. "The girls…?"

"Are secure," Innocet answered smoothly. She let her eyes graze across the flight controls a moment. "They are currently sequestered in the library. This machine appears to enjoy the presence of children, so I am assured of their safety in her hands."

"This isn't Lungbarrow," he warned. "TARDIS doesn't exactly like being told what to do, and she's less eager to do whatever it is you _expect_ her to."

"But," Innocet said without looking up from the console. "Your father does claim that while his capsule may not always do what's expected, she'll always do what's right."

Alyea smirked toward her brother. "Can't really argue with that, can you?"

Gallifrey shrugged and then sniffed indignantly. "I can argue with anything," he replied brazenly. "Right or wrong, I can have you believe anything I want you to believe."

"Which explains your ability to find yourself a wife," Tia teased playfully as she crossed the threshold into the console room. She winked as she passed by Alyea and covertly took hold of the fraying end of her hair ribbon and dragged a single silken thread from it along with her.

Gallifrey smirked a cheeky little smile and looked through his lashes toward his sister as she tied the silken thread to a lever on the console. "I quite literally have women throw themselves at me and claim to be my wife, you cheeky fledershrew…"

"I wouldn't boast about that if I were you," Innocet growled with obvious displeasure. "It's a sickening pride that exists in you Lords of time, isn't it? It's a shameful conceit for anyone who is bonded to another in the holy rites of marriage." She levered a steeled glare toward him. "Do bear in mind, Cousin Gallifrey, that the sexual conquest is not as victorious as is the intellectual defeat against another."

Alyea grinned a filthy little smirk toward her older brother. "Well," she drawled in a manner too much like her father. "That's probably why Gal here is letting his chest puff up about the other _ladies_ across time and space who fancy him. He certainly hasn't got intellect on his side." She turned to look toward her older sister. "Am I right, Tia?"

Tia fluttered her lashes and smiled a purely innocent smile as she watched Alyea's face morph into confusion at the light tug the movement of her head. "I suppose so, Mouse," she replied against her fist as she stifled a snicker at Alyea twisting and turning her trunk to figure out why she could feel feather-like tugs at her plait. "You okay there?"

Alyea let out grunt of displeasure and finally spun in a complete circle in an attempt to cast off whatever it was that was tugging at her hair. She felt a very fine stand of silk cross over her shoulder and then her face and let out a panicked squeal.

"Spider web!" she cried out in horror. "Get it off me! Get it off me!"

Both Tia and Gallifrey spat out identical sounds of laughter through pursed lips as they watched their sister urgently batting away at imagined spiders. Innocet lifted her eyes, but slowly shook her head at the display.

"Cousin Alyea, I believe you have been pranked, child."

She narrowed her eyes between her brother and sister. "Which one of you?" she asked darkly. "And before you answer that, consider my methods of revenge and just how much more…."

"I certainly hope that you aren't referring to your telekinetic ability when discussing vengeance upon your brother and sister," Innocet interrupted sharply in warning with a shift of her eyes toward the youngest member of their party. "I have not spent near a century assisting with your training so that you can use those skills in your games of sibling rivalry."

Alyea lowered her head in a respectful gesture. "Of course not, Cousin. I wouldn't disrespect your honoured tutelage in such a manner."

"I would hope not."

Alyea could hear the snickering from both sides and was sure to glare at both of them with individually directed darkened glares that were full of threat and promise.

"And to think," she muttered under her breath toward her brother, who was still tapping away at the TARDIS computer. "You're actually a father. You're supposed to be the responsible one."

Innocet actually broke out into a smile with that comment. "Oh, dear child. Gallifrey is the product of your father. Genetics does suggest that no matter his incarnation, your brother – like your father – will always be a child inside a man's body."

"I'd like it explained to me why it's perfectly fine for a guy to act like a child whenever he wants, but when we ladies get a little juvenile we are sharply told to grow up and act our age!"

Innocet let her gaze fall back to the console. "I will discuss this question with your Academy professor and have him assign you the task of writing a paper so that you can analyze that quandary." Her tongue peeked just sly of the corner of her mouth and she did attempt to shield her smile. "Perhaps your father can arrange for you to deliver your findings and analysis at a council session so that it can be put to a referendum."

Alyea pressed her hands into the console's edge and leaned forward to lower herself down to be able to look into Innocet's slender and pale face. "You are _definitely_ loomed from the same house as my Dad."

"Then you will know that it is the creed of Lungbarrow that what is said in jest…"

"Will always be put into practice," Tia finished with a laugh. "Oh, Mouse. You're in for it if Dad's getting involved. Worst thing on New Gallifrey is when Dad thinks he needs to help out with your academy assignments." She hugged her around both arms and her waist and let out a hum of sympathy against her ear. "I'm so sorry, Mouse. Your sanity has been a pleasure to get to know over the years."

Alyea whimpered just slightly and looked to her brother with pleading in her eyes. "Any chance that when we're done here that you can leave me behind? I'm only a decade away from graduation. Which means I'm qualified enough to teach on a class-V planet like Sol-III."

Gallifrey gave a flick of his head to shift his floppy fringe from his face and then blew out a breath. He half-smiled for a second as he let his eyes fly over the coordinates on the monitor, and then broke out into a victorious grin. "Oh yes," he cheered out as he swept his palm over a scroll wheel on the console top. "Brilliant. I am absolutely brilliant." He grinned toward his sisters and pointed at the monitor with both hands. "Do you see that, ladies? That is coding on a level unseen, untried, and untested by any other."

Both ladies shifted into a perfectly synchronized side lean in order to take a look for themselves. Alyea rubbed at her chin as her eyes widened in horror.

Tia's brows lifted. "Gal," she began nervously as she walked around Alyea to stand at his side. "You've basically just told TARDIS that she's got free reign over her pilot." She shifted her face closer to the data scrolling along the monitor. After a moment of looking though the swirls and whorls of circular Gallifreyan text she shook her head in disbelief. "Brilliant might be one word for it," she said slowly.

"Foolish might well be another," Alyea barked incredulously. "They have safeguards against Capsule rebellion against their pilots for a _reason_ ," she snapped. "They're sentient, Gal. They can turn on their pilot in an instant!"

"Which is something your Aunt would never do to Dad, or to any of us kids," he argued back. "You know that."

"She fights dad's coordinate inputs all the time," she shot back. "All. The. Time!"

Gallifrey took his sister's chin in his fingers and held her face in a manner to force her to look closer at the command on the screen. "Read the code fully, Mouse," he warned. "TARDIS has been prompted to ignore commands given to her by any _non-symbiotically linked_ pilots. Which doesn't include Dad. They've been symbiotically linked for centuries. If Dad gives any command to her circuits, then she is bound to automatically override any other commands that she's been issued – _including_ this code."

Tia hummed thoughtfully. "You've also tried to expand her telepathic shielding to cover mum and you out there, I see."

"Without much luck I'm afraid," he muttered defeatedly. "She took a hell of a flight to get them here in the first place, and it took a lot out of her. She might have it in her to dematerialize back into the Vortex, but her protections…" He blew out a breath. "I'm not really sure how much power she has left in her."

Tia nodded. "And now that you've not only crossed into your own time stream, but you're trying to rewrite your own history, she's using a lot of energy trying to hold off the paradox."

Gallifrey rubbed affectionately at the console. "Always trying to keep us kids from getting into trouble, aren't you, Sexy?" He blew out a breath. "I'm only rewriting flux lines, I promise you. The fixed point, well, that's being kept intact."

"Till we all get to Earth, of course," Tia ventured morosely.

"I can try and boost her energy if you get me into her cloister room," Alyea offered. "There's a lot of theory being thrown about at the Academy about being able to increase operating power an injured capsule in order to be able to return to dry dock on Gallifrey. Perhaps I can try…"

The entire console room suddenly shuddered as the TARDIS felt the hot wash of telepathic energies burst through her latched front doors and roll through each of her rooms. Her rotor column beeped, trilled, and then whined as each of the four Time Lords in the main console room tremored under the onslaught of energies that was released by the opening fob watch outside the TARDIS doors.

Alyea quickly ran to the doors and quietly unlatched the lock to peer outside into the room. She gasped to see her brother's child-self perched atop his mother's knee with a look of fear on his pale and lightly freckled face.

"Gal," she whispered inside a harsh hiss. "What do we do now?"

"Just wait," he hissed in reply. "Just. Wait."

Tia pushed up her sleeves and stalked to the doorway. "Well. I say we make this family vacation worth the hell we're going to get from Dad when he finds out what we're doing, and get on out there to save mum and little Gal." Her brow pinched. "And also me, I guess, considering I'm swimming about in mum's belly right now … ew to _that_ image."

Gallifrey snorted. "And you claimed to not be ready for this…"

"Oh," she scoffed. "I'm all for going in one-on-one, or four, or six if you count mum and little you, seven if we count Aunty TARDIS…" She waited to be interrupted and huffed to find three sets of eyes curiously waiting for her to finish her thought. She slumped. She winced. "I'm just not so ready for." She winced tighter and swirled her hand in the air with a roll of her wrist. "For _that_."

Innocet put her hand on Tia's shoulder in a rare show of support. "You are free to step away if you desire, child. This can all come to pass without you having to intervene in the abhorrent manner asked of you by your brother."

Tia shook her head. "Dad's safety is worth the demons, Cousin."

"Speaking of Dad," Alyea offered with a hard whisper as she waved her family over. "He's caught on the other side of the door. And he's in a panic."

"Not unusual where Mum's concerned," Tia whispered softly.

They all jumped in surprise when their father pounded aggressively on the other side of the doors. The fury they could hear in his tone made them all wince, but only Innocet found voice to remark on it, but only after the Master had levied a threat to take his son from him.

"This I will not allow," she said with a growl as she walked to the console and rounded her arms to insist that the others follow. "Your capsule might not have the available power to fuel a telepathic storm, but we most certainly do."

Gallifrey jogged down the ramp to join her. "What'd you mean by that?"

"We form a telepathic shield to protect your mother and yourself from that man's assault." She rolled her eyes. "Really, Gallifrey, I am somewhat disappointed that you didn't consider that yourself."

"I did, but the TARDIS doesn't have the power to sustain it." His eyes widened. "Unless you mean blocking it completely?"

Alyea looked worried. "That would shield out Dad as well. He'd lose them completely from his mind. It'll drive him insane."

"It's either that or we let the Master into your brother's mind, Alyea," Innocet advised somewhat coolly.

"No," Gallifrey thundered out in a snarl. "I'm not letting that happen again. Never again." He swept his arm through the air in a demand for them all to surround the console. Once in position he gave a hard clap of his hands. "Right then, Team Lungbarrow," he said with a smirk and a flick of his head. "Time to turn the silo into a Zero Room … We'll apologise to Dad later … Contact, anyone?"

Tia sighed. "Not that I fancy being inside your mind, but yeah. Contact."

Both Innocet and Alyea offered their consent to join and the foursome closed their eyes in concentration. As the strangled cry of the young Gallifrey curled it's way in through the TARDIS doors, his older self touched his palm to the rotor column.

"We're giving you all we've got, Aunty. Help us help them."

An invisible wall of void rushed from each exterior wall of the TARDIS at the same moment that a gunshot's pop blistered through the air.

And the entire silo went silent.


	12. Void

A/N: Oh, but I ran out o time today before I could get everything done that I wanted to get done in this chapter, which means that it has to be spread over two chapters.

I never quite realize just how long it takes me to get through certain things. I thought: okay, five sections, maybe 500 words each ... Nope. Not. At. All. Never! What is wrong with me?

Right-y oh .. all the players in this game have now been introduced (excluding Eight, but his entrance is somewhat later than this little bit of play - he needs to show when Rose needs him most .. so patience, please) ... so let's get to the first showdown and the theft of TARDIS ... (shit, took me a bit to get there, yeah?!)

Thanks a tonne for your comments, PMs and encouragements. They really do keep a girl at it!

~~oooOOOooo~~

The silence that had suddenly engulfed his superior Time Lord mind was – if you'll pardon the cliché – absolutely deafening. He couldn't even describe the sensation inside his mind a silence. It was a numbing yet pulsating sense of absolute nothingness; a void that seemed about ready to engulf his mind completely and drive him to madness.

He stumbled backward, shook his head, and even coughed at this sudden telepathic blindness. His mouth hung low, his breath panted and his gaze was unfocused as he staggered back further from the access panel.

Jack gripped onto the Doctor's shoulders and held just shy of shaking him into their current timestream. "Doc. Doc? What's happened?"

"I can't," he breathed out fearfully. "I can't see." He groaned and held the butts of his hands hard into his eyes. "I can't see, Jack. I've gone blind."

Martha was upon him immediately. Her breath was audibly panicked and she grasped at his wrists to pull his hands from his eyes. "Doctor? What's happened? How are you blind?" She let his eyes find somewhat lazy focus on her face and snapped her fingers in front of his nose.

Immediately the Doctor recoiled from her with a deep crease between his brows. He swatted at her hand and offered her a look that was very much a _'mind yourself, you're dribbling on your shirt'_ expression. "I'm not visually impaired," he snapped rudely. He sniffed indignantly. "I can see just fine, thank you. You, and Jack, and this gigantic bloody locked door that's separating me from my family."

"Than what are you on about?" Jack snapped. "You just carried on about being blind. What are we supposed to assume? That _blind_ means something different in high and mighty Gallifreyan?"

As soon as those words were out of Jack's mouth, the Doctor's indignance fell. He swallowed hard over a lump in his throat that made him drop his head and speak somewhat huskily. "Yeah, Jack. It does." He lifted his head and tightly rolled his shoulders as he walked back to the access panel and resumed trying to get the door open. "But unless you have any form of grasp on the spatial and temporal dimensions that allow all living beings the ability to infer the existence of the third spatial dimension you perceive yourself viewing everything around you, then I don't have the time nor the crayons to explain to you the additional dimensions of sight possessed by the Time Lords."

Jack leaned down to speak coldly against his ear. "It's a good thing you made that one worth it, Doc, because that's the only one you're getting…"

"What are you waffling about?" he growled impatiently.

"Your wife and child are in peril. You're frustrated and I get that," he answered coldly as he nudged the Doctor off the task with a shove of his shoulder. He sniffed as he worked his fingers through the wiring. "Which means that you get one chance to be a complete arrogant jackass and not get your arse handed to you." He let his eyes shift toward the Doctor. They softened, as did his voice. "They're okay, Doc. You know they are."

The Doctor shook his head slowly. With a lick of his lip he closed his eyes and let his mental hands feel along the lines of the bond that connected him to his wife and child. He felt a physical blow to his forehead as his search led him straight into an invisible wall of darkness. His mind slammed itself against the wall as though he'd physically thrown his shoulder at it, but to no avail. There was no fracture against the void for him to be able to see what lay beyond.

He was blinded to his wife and child in a manner he'd experienced only once before – when he'd lost them both behind a dimensional wall.

The familiarity of being shut out in such a forceful manner dropped the Time Lord to his knees.

"By the love of Rassilon, Omega and the Other, please no," he begged the door in front of him. "Please. I can't do this. Not again."

Martha fell at his side and instantly had her arms around his shuddering shoulders. "Doctor. What's happening?"

"I can't feel them," he answered in quite possibly the smallest voice she'd ever heard.

"Who, Doctor?"

"They're gone," he answered with a whimper. "Rose and Gal." He looked at her with a boyish look of utter terror. "They're gone."

~~oooOOOooo~~

The sudden silence in her head leapt upon her with the loud cough of a handheld firearm. Rose felt the tug that tore the Doctor and her son from her mind. It was a tug, a stretch, and then a snap … and her husband and son were banished from her mind.

She panted in absolute confusion to the sensation. She held her son protectively inside her embrace. She could feel his shuddering little body and his heaving breaths of terror. She knew without a doubt that her precious child was alive and well … so why couldn't she feel his little ray of warmth inside her mind?

Her eyes drifted to the body that lay on the floor at her feet, and the expanding pool of blood that rolled along tiled flooring like a mini-tsunami overtaking a city. He was still alive, though. Despite the sucking hole in his chest, this man – the Master – who claimed to have once been the best friend of her husband and now wanted him to die in the most torturous of manners, was still living. Barely alive, of course, but alive nonetheless.

Her eyes shifted to his, which were locked on the eyes of the trembling little boy in her arms.

"How d-did you fight off my…" He inhaled a deep and gurgled breath and blinked slowly. "How did … did you fight me, boy?"

"You don't belong in my head," he replied with far more confidence than his voice was conveying. "I have shields."

"Tots your age aren't strong enough," he corrected with a gurgle. "Not even your … your d-dad can…" His eyes clenched tightly together as he coughed up a mouthful of blood that bubbled over his lips to run down toward his ear. He opened them again to look toward the child. "You are s-something … unique, G-Gallif-frey." His hand moved slowly across the floor to attempt to reach for the child's hand. "T-Together, we could be … un-unstoppable."

Rose tugged Gallifrey backward, taking a couple of steps herself to back off. "Leave him alone," she snarled. "I'm not lettin' you anywhere near him."

Chantho, who had remained in a silent and almost catatonic state as she held the weapon, finally let out a hard breath and dropped the weapon. She did so with all the dramatics of a woman dropping a mug with a spider on it; with a whimpering yelp and a hurried stagger backward.

"Chan, what have I done, tho?" She looked toward Rose with horror in her eyes.

"You saved my son," Rose answered thankfully.

"Chan, I killed a man, tho."

"You killed a _monster,_ " Rose corrected passionately. "Someone who's able to destroy the universe."

Chantho shook her head frantically. "Chan, I'm a murderer, tho."

Rose was ready to protest once again, but stopped at the light whimper that came from her child. "Gal?"

"Oh," he breathed worriedly. "I don't know that you're a murderer, Miss Chantho." He gulped. "Mum. We forgot about him bein' a Time Lord."

"What do you mean?"

Gallifrey pointed toward the man on the ground. "They regenerate, remember."

Rose's eyes fell to the man on the ground who maintained a strong stare and a toothy smile toward her child. His aged and bloody body rippled with amber energies that Rose could see was crawling over his entire body.

"Get in the TARDIS," she demanded to her child as she noted the increase in the glow of energy. She gave him a helpful, but hard push toward the timeship. "Now!"

Gallifrey stood firm against her guiding hand. He shook his head and tightened his face with defiance. "No," he growled in reply. "Not goin' anywhere, Mum. Not without you."

"I said go," she demanded hotly. "In the TARDIS."

He stomped a foot on the ground and clenched his little hands into fists. His freckled little face was a tight crease of fury that his mother would even halfway entertain the notion that he'd leave her alone. "You can't make me," he growled with threat. "If you're here, then I'm here. Like it or not."

From the floor, the Master had to chuckle. "I'm going to have so much…" His words morphed to a grunt when Rose kicked out a leg to belt him one in the side. "Fun," he moaned. "With the both of you it looks like."

Rose curled a lip in disgust and then spun to admonish her child for his unashamed disobedience. She set one hand on her hip and used the other to point at the blue Timeship. "Get inside the TARDIS, Gallifrey. That's not a request, that's a demand. And so help me if you don't get in there right now."

He flinched just slightly at her calm and dangerous tone, but there was no way in this – or any other – universe that he was going to leave her all alone. "No."

One thing Gallifrey Tyler had to admit about his mother, was that she was faster than he was. No sooner had he defiantly growled out his negative to her order, Rose Tyler's hand flicked up and out, and then snatched a firm hold of the shell of his left ear with her thumb and index finger.

"Know this, young Lord," she snarled hotly as she dragged him toward the TARDIS. "I am absolutely not opposed to using corporal punishment against disobedient little boys." She ignored the way he yipped and whined under her grasp. "I am pretty sure that I can have your Dad find a planet where spankings are still allowed and will lever a decent walloping across your little backside."

Gallifrey continued to protest in amongst his little yelps and hisses about the painful tug on his ear. He knew what his mum was trying to do. She was channeling her fear for his safety into anger, and she was letting that drive her into locking him up in a protective box and throwing away the key…

…But had she forgotten that it was always the two of them; Rose and Gallifrey standing together to beat the odds against any of the bad guys that had ever gone after them? Did she forget that he was her little protector? Her wolf cub?

The TARDIS doors opened without Rose having to use her key and she let out a quiet word of thanks to the protective old girl as she guided Gallifrey to stand in the centre between the two open doors. "Gal," she breathed worriedly as she dropped into a crouch in front of him and held his little face in her hands. "Go inside and hide. Don't come out until me or your dad come and get you, okay?"

"But mum."

"No buts," she interrupted gently. "I love you, my precious boy. Remember that, okay? Remember that your mum and dad love you very, very much."

"You're not leavin' me alone," he begged her. "You and me, mum. It's always been you and me."

She rose up high in the crouch to press a kiss against Gallifrey's forehead. "Love you, Gal."

He opened his mouth to argue again, but found himself roughly shoved onto his little butt on the ramp of the TARDIS console room. He didn't have any reaction time to jump up run – or to even return his mother's sentiment – before the TARDIS doors slammed shut and the lock clicked loudly into place.

"Wha'?" he huffed out as he scuffled backward, and then rolled forward to push himself to a stand. "No. No no no no no," he chanted as he ran to the doors and frantically twisted a the lock to try and open the door. The tumbler twisted round and around and didn't act to release the lock at all.

In frustration he punched against the doors. "Mum! Mum! Let me out of here. Please! Lemme out!" Yells turned to sobs and then to sniffles, and little Gallifrey Tyler let his forehead drop against the doors in defeat at the hands of his mother.

"Now now, little one," a matronly voice chided from behind him. "That is behaviour most unbecoming of a young Time Lord."

Gallifrey jumped in shock and spun about to press his back into the door. He tried to shuffle his feet back further when he found himself in a very crowded console room. "Who … who are you?" He straightened up and tried valiantly to stand tall and fearless in the face of four adult strangers. "I'm warnin' you. I'm not goin anywhere easy."

Tia chuckled into her hand and swung her loose blonde hair over her shoulder as she twisted to look at the older incarnation of Gallifrey. "You really were a scrawny little thing back then, weren't you?"

"He was a brave little tafelshrew, though," Alyea cooed gently. "And so very adorable – like Dad in his tenth, only _littler_."

He looked between them all and swallowed hard. "Who are you, and what are you doin' in my Dad's TARDIS?"

Innocet stepped forward and held her hand out in an invitation for the youngster to take it. "My dear Gallifreypetertylerlungbarrowmas…"

"I hate it when you use my full name," the older Gallifrey moaned quietly.

"When you were _his_ age," she commented back sharply. "It was the fastest way to get you calm when you were becoming unreasonable." She looked back to the youngster with a smile. "Now if you'll follow me, child. Your mother has asked that you get to safety, and right now the safest part of this capsule is the library."

The youngster looked up at Innocet, and shook his head warily. He then looked across to his elder self. "Are you supposed to be me?"

Tia smiled with pride. "Oh, you were clever, too." She levered her head to look toward the older Gal. "My how you've changed."

The youngster pressed back harder into the door. He pointed up toward his older self. "Then. Then, if you're me, then why aren't I feeling you right now?" He panted. "I should feel your presence here like a crawling spider in my head, yeah?"

His eyes were wide, yet gentle, when he nodded. "Telepathic void," he answered. He then swallowed and looked away from the lad. "Aunty has a telepathic shield in place that's currently blocking out any telepathic contact at all right now. Necessary," he assured with a roll of his wrist in front of him. "To stop a hijack of your mind by Dad's frenemy outside."

"Which means that Mum and Dad can't feel each other, yeah?"

"Correct."

The youngster pointed harshly toward his older self. "Then I'm gonna let you explain that to 'em, because when the two of them find out…" he made the sound of an explosion. He looked toward Alyea and Tia and then back to Gallifrey. "Sisters? Or am I going back on my own time stream with dates?"

Tia held up a hand. "Sisters," she answered quickly. "Two of the many that Mum and Dad have managed to spawn over the century and a half they've been mated." She thumbed to Alyea. "This is Cobblemouse…"

"Alyea," she corrected with a moan. "As in Alyealemlumialungbarrowmas. Third daughter. That is Tialistrelemlungbarrowmas, the sister mum's pregnant with right now…"

"Introductions can wait, don't you think, ladies?" Innocet cut in sharply. "It is imperative that we get this young Lord sequestered before the Time Lord outside completes his regeneration and finds his way into this capsule." She grasped onto the shoulder of Gallifrey's tunic and forcibly led him past the console and into the corridors.

"You will have to accept my apology in advance, young Lord," she said emotionlessly. "I am greatly opposed to having to sequester you little ones when your hearts yearn for freedom and adventure like your father." She led him to an ornate wooden door and pressed her hand on it to push it open. "But safety is your father's prime directive when it comes to any of you young ones, and it's my duty to ensure that you and yours are kept safe at all times – be it at Lungbarrow or within the walls of this magnificent capsule."

"Are you like a _nanny_ or something?" he queried with a slight grimace of curiosity.

"I'm your cousin," she answered with a blink and a light nod of her head. "The bonded housekeeper of the new Lungbarrow home, and protector of little time tots." She coaxed him into the room with the swatting of her hands. "Now. If you will, child. I'll come for you when it's safe."

His whole face screwed up and he shook his head. "Nope. I don't think so," he challenged her with an arrogant and defiant expression on his face. "I'll just…"

He yelped out as the door to the library slammed shut to lock him inside. He ran to the door and jiggled it, then he shook it, then he tugged on it. Finally, he pounded on it with the butt of his fist.

"Oh come on! Let me outta here!"

There was a giggle to his rear, and Gallifrey spun in place to once again press his back up against the door in the hope that it would magically open to set him free.

"Who's there?"

Two little heads popped up over the back of couch, followed by little shoulders, and then arms and then legs as they both simultaneously climbed over it and dropped lightly to the floor.

Gallifrey watched through cautious eyes as they approached him. One of them a stocky, yet above the average height for a girl her age, with sandy blonde hair, blue eyes and a lollypop hanging from her mouth. The other was a small, thin girl with raven-black hair, a waif's figure and large, curious, hazel eyes that were well and truly locked on him.

He twisted his head side to side as though wanting to take his eyes off them, but found himself completely unable to do so.

The Blonde took the lollypop from her mouth with a loud sucking sound and smiled a tooth in teeth smile. "Well if it isn't lil'boy Gal! My big brother who's actually my _little_ brother!" she skipped forward and held out her hand. "I'm Eve, by the way. Youngest right now, but I think that might change. I'm seeing Dad getting all paternal again now that I start the Academy in the fall." She took a single suck off her lolly pop and then continued. "This is really cool, because Innocet said we might see you like this, but I really didn't believe her at all, which is kind've bad of me to think, really, cause she never actually lies." She giggled. "Well, not unless she's trying to cover up for one of us when we are misbehaving, and then it's only a lil'white lie, yeah? Nothing that's really gonna get her into too much trouble with Mum'n'Dad'n'all."

Gallifrey looked to her with a doubtful arch in his brow and thumbed back at the door. "You mean the matron who brought me here?"

"Oh I wouldn't really put her in the whole _matron_ …" She stopped talking when the other girl took the lollypop from her fingers and stuck it in her mouth. She sighed around the sweet. "Was I blabbering on again, Arkytior?"

Arkytior nodded to Eve and then looked to Gallifrey with a smile. "It's all a front, Father," the brunette answered with a curious tilt in her head. "Cousin Innocet might act as though she is uncaring and insensitive, but she is the owner of two very soft hearts."

Gallifrey's eyes were wide, and there was no way at all that he could claim to have heard anything that the pixie-girl in front of him had said beyond her fifth word. "Did. Did you just call me f-father?"

Eve giggled around her sweet. "Oops! Busted."

Arkytior rolled her eyes and gave a warm smile as she held out her hand to Gallifrey. "Yes, Father, I did. Allow me to introduce myself. I'm your daughter, Arkytior." She batted her lashes. "But I prefer to be called Susan."


End file.
